Folk Silk (an ancient silk workshop in Zhejiang Province) requires high-quality twin cocoons from famous silkworm rearing areas such as Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou, which are harvested after the spring silkworm rearing season. This is because the mulberry leaves are tender in the spring, and accordingly the silk produced is softer and smoother. Moreover, the silk pulled out from the twin cocoons is criss-crossed and made quite solid as a result, and at the same time, its other unique properties will not decrease.

It should be noted that since the cocoons are hand-selected during the whole process, it is impossible to acquire 100% twin cocoons; usually getting more than 90% twin cocoons is considered acceptable.

Folk Silk uses crock to brew the high-quality silk cocoon in clear water of about 50 ° C, without adding any chemical agents during the entire process. By this means, the boiled silk will become very soft and smooth, and moreover, as the adhesive resin on the surface of the silk is taken off, the silk quilt will not harden easily and likely won't require renovation in the future.

Folk Silk organizes a large group of patient and experienced middle-aged women to do this work.

They cut open the cocoon with their nails and take out the silkworm chrysalis. Then, while wearing the cocoons on their hands, they fold 5-6 layers of silk and gently pull them into small square pieces. This work requires great care, and when cutting open the cocoon, the cocoon silk must not be broken.

In our modern, restless society, perhaps only this select group of women are truly capable of doing this complicated and time-consuming work.

Cover a bow-shaped bamboo tool with the square silk pieces generated from cocoon stripping. Stack up to 5 or 6 layers, and the wet silk pockets come into existence. As you can see, about 30 cocoons (5 times 6, if you can remember your multiplication tables) are needed to produce a silk pocket.

Dehydrate the wet silk pockets with the drying machine, and then string them together with nylon lines and dry in the sun. After sun-baked, the silk pocket will be as white as jade and shape in bow. With few impurities, long fiber and natural silkworm incense and natural sheen, the raw material to produce silk quilt is obtained.

Two people slowly unfold the silk pockets one by one, and regularly stack up one layer after another. The process must be undertaken carefully, using hands so as to avoid uneven thickness.

Usually 35 or so silk pockets can produce one jin of comforter batt.

Then comes the process of bringing the comforter batt into the inner container. As Old Folk adopts high-quality silk which has a certain degree of adsorption, it is unnecessary to fix the inner layer of the inner container with needle and thread, and the silk adjoining the inner container will affix itself. In addition, a zipper is used to seal the inner container and therefore save the previous cumbersome needlework.

(Usually the silk quilt is very difficult to renovate, but the silk quilt made in Laosifang can maintain a long-lasting shape, and thus the waste of this valuable raw material - silk - can be avoided. It compliments the concept of being green and environmentally friendly very well.)

Although the rapid development of the mulberry silk quilt industry pushed forward the development of many local economies, deciding how best to cultivate a team of modern young people for hand-made mulberry silk quilt manufacturing is a significant challenge facing this traditional Chinese industry, even facing the traditional handicraft industry at large.

Nowadays, machine processing is gradually replacing traditional manual skills, and in the process, some traditional crafts and skills have been lost or withered away. How can we protect traditional crafts and skills in this age of rapid technological development? Traditional crafts and skills, as the precious legacy of the Chinese nation and the result of ceaseless exploration, practice, innovation and summarization, are facing a serious crisis. However, we all understand that every traditional craft and skill has created great economic value throughout history. Can we turn these precious arts into necessities for constructing our modern life?