how silk is made

Silk farms raise cocoons through a process called sericulture. Silk producers then process the cocoon through four stages:

Sorting: Each cocoon is sorted according to color, size, shape, and texture. The quality of silk depends on the combination of these attributes. Cocoon coloring can vary from white to yellow to gray.
Sericin Softening: Sericin or "silk gum" is the gooey substance that holds the silk filament together. The cocoons are submersed in hot and cold water to soften the sericin and silk filaments are unwound to produce a continuous thread.
Filament Reeling: Silk filaments are unwound in the reeling process and combined together to make a thread of raw silk. Three to ten strands of silk filament are combined for a single thread as individual filaments are too fine for commercial use.
Baling: Silk is reeled into skeins and then shipped to silk mills all over the world.