How many kinds of silk are in the world?

Mulberry Silk is the world’s favourite silk and accounts for around 90% of silk produced globally. It is so popular because it is thought to be the highest quality silk and is produced by the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori.

Although Mulberry Silk is the most highly regarded, you can even find different qualities of Mulberry Silk. The good news for those interested in buying products made with Mulberry Silk is that it’s easy to sort the wheat from the chaff by taking note of the ‘momme’ of the silk. Momme is the measure of the density of silk. If your silk garment contains one ‘momme’ of silk, then you can expect to find 4.340 grams of silk per square meter of that fabric.

It is widely known that many spider species produce silk to spin webs and capture prey. Spider silk is not only practical for spiders themselves, but its properties could also be beneficial for humans. For instance, spider silk is incredibly strong, with a tensile strength comparable to high-grade alloy steel and about half the strength of Kevlar, which is commonly used in various applications.bulletproof vestsbecause of its strength!). Better still, it is also 1/6th of the weight of steel, so it’s easy to see why this silk is of interest to researchers around the world.

So why isn’t this silk used more widely? At the moment, the simple reason is because it is difficult to extract and process substantial amounts of Spider Silk.

Sea Silk is an extremely fine, rare and therefore expensive type of silk. The history of most silks stems from the east, in countries such as China, India, Thailand and Bangladesh. However Sea Silk was first produced in the Mediterranean region. Of course being named ‘Sea Silk’, it is not produced by land species such as spiders and worms, it is produced by a specific type of ‘bivalve’ mollusc, known as the ‘Pinna nobilis’.

Unfortunately, this particular type of mollusk that produces Sea Silk is at risk of extinction and is currently only harvested and manufactured by a few individuals in Sardinia. If you are interested in clothing made from Sea Silk, consider visiting Sardinia to seek out Chiara Vigo, who is known to be involved.The last surviving sea silk seamstressTo give you an idea of price for Sea Silk pieces, aSea Silk hat was put up for auctionNew York in 2019 with a guide price of $5,000 - $8,000.

Tussar Silk is naturally gold in color produced by several species of silkworm belonging to the moth family. These silkworms often live within trees in wild forests and it is mainly harvested in countries including China, India, Japan, and Sri Lanka.

Tussar Silk is generally considered to be more textured than Mulberry Silk, which means the overall feel is less soft, but the main reason that we do not choose to use this silk for our bedding here at Gingerlily, is that Tussar Silk is not as durable as Mulberry Silk. That said, you can still find it used in garments and linens around the world. It is particularly common to find it used in the production of womens’ sarees.

Eri Silk comes from a specific species of caterpillar found in North East India as well as certain parts of China and Japan. This silk’s thermal properties mean that it can keep you warm in winter and cool during summer, however it’s not commonly the silk-of-choice for fabric production, simply because it is elastic and is also heavier than other silks.

Eri Silk feels more ‘wool-like’ and also blends well with wool and cotton, so you can expect to find it mixed with these more common materials in silk-blend items such as curtains, bed covers and quilts.

Muga Silk is known for its natural golden color and is specifically from the Indian state of Assam. Steeped in its own history, this blend of silk was typically preferred by Indian royalty.

Like Mulberry Silk, Muga Silk is also made by silkworms, but these silkworms are unique because of their location in Assam and they are also a specific species of silkmoth fed on a strict diet of aromatic som and sualu leaves.

Because of this silk’s origins, it is commonly used to make products like sarees and other traditional Indian garments.

Art silk, also known as bamboo silk, is artificial silk and refers to any synthetic fibre which resembles silk, but is not actually real silk. Typically, you will be able to tell by looking at the label of a product to find out whether it is real silk or not, but if there is no label, then there are a number of ways that you can identify ‘Art Silk’.