TEXTILES ─ Bolt Threads
WILL THE HUMBLE SILKWORM SOON BE
OUT OF A JOB? How Bolt Threads is changing silk. By Cary Sherburne
W
ho doesn’t love the feel of silk against the skin? In “The Fabric of Civilization,” author Virginia Postrel, spends some time discussing this ancient material. Let’s have just a brief bit of history here from Postrel’s book before we take a peek at the potential future of silk in a hightech world. Postrel explains that “sericulture” is the ancient art of raising and harvesting of silkworms. She notes that silk proteins have been found under bodies in Chinese tombs 8,500 years old, suggesting these bodies were wrapped or dressed in silk even way back then. Most likely, these fabrics were created from wild silk, but a few thousand years later, the Chinese were actually cultivating silkworms to gain more silk filaments. The oldest actual silk fabrics date back about 5,500 years, according to Postrel). Silkworms were
56
56-57_Silkworms.indd 56
“domesticated,” if that’s the right word. When silkworms hatched Microsilk from eggs, they (Image sourced from were placed BoltThreads.com) in trays full of chopped up mulberry leaves and ate their little hearts out until it was time to spin a nice silky cocoon. These cocoons were kept under close observation, and heated to kill the moth inside before it could break out of its silky prison and destroy the fibers the worm worked so hard to create. It truly was an art that required close observation of time, temperature, humidity and, of course, those yummy mulberry leaves. Over time, silk and the fabrics woven from it became prized commodities around the globe and was one of the factors in generating a system of world trade. Ultimately, silk production took place in other countries, including Japan and India. In the early days, the silk filaments carefully unwound from
Mycelium, the vegetable part of a fungus, consisting of a network of fine white filaments.
the cocoon by hand, a laborintensive process that required great skill. Over the years, things became more mechanized, but silk has remained a valuable commodity, both for its strength and hand-feel and for the way it absorbs dyes to make brilliant colors. Now fast forward to 2009 in Silicon Valley. A company called Bolt Threads was founded by Dan Widmaier. He has a PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from UC San Francisco. Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder David Breslauer earned his PhD in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley and UCSF, where he developed his obsession with silk research.
WhatTheyThink - Wide-Format&Signage | January/February 2021
1/19/21 2:49 PM
