Silk

Eri silk clothes dyed with natural dyes in Assam, India

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. Silk is mainly produced by the larvae of insects undergoing complete metamorphosis, but some insects, such as webspinners and raspy crickets, produce silk throughout their lives. Silk is produced by several insects, but generally only the silk of moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacturing. The shimmering appearance of silk is due to the triangular prism-like structure of the silk fibre, which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles, thus producing different colors.

Uses

See also: Bow and arrow

Silk can be used as bowstring material.

Dependencies

• Silk
  • Bowstring

See also

• Cotton
• Leather
• Linen
• Nylon
• Wool
• Textiles

References

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Silk, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).