During my previous trip to Wuzhen (an ancient canal town near Shanghai) I was lucky enough to come across an old silk production factory which was still in active use, albeit mainly as a living museum these days. The process of turning a silkworm cocoon into fabric, known as sericulture, is fascinating so I took some photos and videos to show how it’s done: Silkworms (technically moths) are cultivated in controlled environments with a female laying up to 400 eggs at a time. Once hatched, the larvae are fed huge quantities of mulberry leaves (up to 50,000 times its initial weight!) for around six-weeks after which it spins a silk cocoon around itself (pupating). During this time it produces about a kilometer of silk filament…