This isn’t my photo, but I’m using it with permission because it illustrates so perfectly the variety of cocoons you can get from Bombyx silkworms. There are six strains in these seven containers; they are all Bombyx mori, the colors, sizes, and shapes are genetic. The names really only make sense to me, but starting […]
My long love affair with the American passionflower, Passiflora incarnata, started when I was a little kid. When I was visiting my grandparents in Kansas, my grandpa brought me home some of these gourds that he found while out helping his farmer friend bring in the cattle. They didn’t dry well. Later, I found the […]
Sammons Center where I work is putting together a Paranormal Forum for October 30, and we’re trying to find people who will do fortune-telling for about an hour to an hour and a half… whatever format, cards, palm-reading, etc… we’ll pay $50 flat rate for the evening. I need people who can be light-hearted and […]
Yaay, it’s finally here! The Fall 2009 issue of SpinOff has my article on raising silk. I’m so excited. I may have to go stand next to news-stands at local yarn shops and point to it.
I often bring in accidental travelers when I gather leaves to feed my silkworms. I get leaf hoppers, the occasional spider or caterpillar… and so I don’t worry too much when I notice something crawly coming out of my leaf bags. Today’s immigrant seemed not-quite-right somehow. It’s a tiny little ant – or is it? […]
Voltinism refers to the number of broods that a silkmoth strain (or species) will have per year. Most of the silkworm strains in cultivation are univoltine (or monovoltine) – meaning they have one brood per year, and the eggs laid by the moths of that brood will go into diapause to hatch the next year. […]
I got an email a while back from Amy Clarke Moore, asking if they could include some of my silk in their upcoming calendar. I was delighted – and they have done such a neat job on the whole thing! The calendar is here, available for pre-order. I can’t wait to see it in person; […]
I was contacted last September by a video producer in the exhibits department of the American Museum of Natural History. They’re working on an exhibit about the Silk Road, and they want some footage of silk being made, silkworms doing their thing, etc. She asked if I would be willing to help out – and, […]
Originally published at WormSpit. You can comment here or there. For the most part, my fabulous Day Job as Assistant Director of a performing arts center and my fascinating hobby job as a sericulturist and weaver stay pretty separate. Everybody at the office knows about my weaving and silk work, and a lot of them […]
This is especially for Darina, because she can’t believe my moths are SO KINKY. These are both males. They’re hooked together really well. This little grouping is one male, mated with a female – and then another male who has hooked up his claspers on the other male’s wing. I can’t imagine that would be […]