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Links
Many of these fall into two or more categories; I'm separating them based on what I see as their primary focus. For example, many of the silk suppliers also have excellent educational information. If you'd like to have your link moved to a different category, please let me know.
Information Sites About Silkworms,
Silk Moths, and Rearing
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 Click to join CatHerders |
CatHerders is a Yahoo group dedicated to rearing silkmoths, and working with their silk. |
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This site is devoted to the American saturniids - the giant silkmoths. Bill and Don Oehlke carry livestock, as well as maintaining some of the most thorough info on the wild silkmoths of the world |
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John Cody is the "Audobon of Moths" - his amazing and detailed paintings showcase these beautiful creatures. The site also has a lot of good information on rearing and care of the giant silkmoths. |
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Liz Day's site has a lot of good information on rearing Saturniid moths. |
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Joe has been raising moths since he was five. Now, in addition to rearing the moths for his own enjoyment, he gives presentations and teaches classes on them. |
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This is a directory of insect sites. Clicking here takes you to that site, but also registers a vote for wormspit.com in their rankings. |
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This site is focused on helping native people in Madagascar learn how to raise their local moths for silk. Check out the National Geographic report under "updates"! | |
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Sue Kayton's site on silkworms focuses on their use in schools; she has some great curricular ideas, including handouts and planning information. |
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This site registers rankings for insect websites. Click on the little lizard, and wormspit.com gets a point! |
Information Sites About Silk Processing,
Silk History, Techniques, etc.
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Click to join SilkReelers |
SilkReelers is a Yahoo group dedicated to the study of reeling and processing silk from cocoons. |
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This French site has amazing photographs and descriptions of the French silk process after Jacquard. Look at the bottom right of the main page for English articles. Some of the articles are only in French, but worth looking at for the photography! |
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This site presents the history of silk
in Soufli, Greece. This town became a center for European silk, and people
in the town are keeping their sericultural traditions alive. The language
switch is in the upper right-hand corner, in case you can't read Greek!
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SILK SUPPLIERS
These are companies that provide silk in fiber, yarn, or fabric forms, as well as supplies and tools.
Many of these are also excellent sources of information; I've tried to note this in the comments.
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Treenway is a supplier of a wide variety of silk products, including cocoons for reeling, hankies, fiber for spinning, and a full line of yarns. Cocoons are located under the "fibers" page. Their "Inside Out" pages have information on lots of different subjects. |
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Master dyer Cheryl Kohlander, author of "The Silkworker's Notebok," uses natural dyes to make over 120 shades on silk. She sells "Peace Cocoons," from which the moths have already hatched - not useable for reeling, but great for spinning. She also sells silkworm eggs. |
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Carol Weymar carries a variety of handpainted silk roving. |
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This is an Indian company that manufactures and sells a wide variety of silk garments and home items. Check out their "about silk" pages. |
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Linda LaBelle's site sells yarn, fibers, tools, and supplies. Check out her SILK page for silk carrier rods, cocoons, and spinning fiber. |
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This site in the UK sells a variety of silk fibers. They're one of the few places that you'll find gummy raw silk! |
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This site has some amazingly beautiful textiles. Check out the silk weaving pages for some great shots of village life and weaving. |
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This site in Laos carries silk yarns, fabrics, and garments made from hand-reeled cocoons. Check out their photos of the silk processing! This is where I got my Lao reel; if you email and ask, they can probably make you one too.
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Habu Textiles is the only place I know of that can get a new Japanese zakuri (silk reel) shipped to the US. They carry itomaki (silk reel bobbins) and a wide range of amazing silk yarns. |
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Pathways Trading Company specializes in fair-trade products, including Thai silks.
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Griffin Dye Works has natural dyes, dyeing tools, fibers, books, and more.
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Silkworm, Caterpillar, or Moth Suppliers
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Mulberry Farms sells silkworms and other insects as food for reptiles. They've got great info on how to raise the worms on artificial chow. |
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A list for insect hobbyists; this is a great place to find eggs or cocoons of the wild silkmoths like polyphemus, cecropia, luna, and eri. Look under "Lepidoptera" in the classified section. |
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This site is devoted to the American saturniids - the giant silkmoths. Look at the "livestock" section for species available for sale. |
Other Textile Sites
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SilkReelers is a Yahoo group dedicated to the study of reeling and processing silk from cocoons. |
| WeaversHand is a site devoted to textile techniques such as tablet weaving, kumihimo, and braiding. | |
