Editing Silk comforter (section)

== Production and processing ==

Silk comes from the cocoons of the [[silkworm]], which feeds off [[mulberry]] trees in subtropical climates. When the cocoon is boiled, the hard cocoon becomes a loose ball of strong, flexible filament measuring over 1,000 meters. Usually, this ball is uncoiled and wrapped on a spindle for use in the textile industry. Silk is used for making everything from clothing to rugs. During silk comforter production, however, the silk filament is not unraveled, but rather stretched into a flat tangled web and layered to form silk floss, which will fill the comforter.

The cocoons are first boiled to loosen the sericin holding the filaments together and kill the silkworm. Each cocoon is stretched by hand on a U-shaped wooden rack, and the ball of thread becomes a sheet of tangled fibers. This sheet is then hand-stretched again on a larger rack, along with several other cocoons to make a thick, cottony bundle called silk floss. It takes hundreds of these bundles to make a silk comforter.

Once enough silk cocoons have been stretched into bundles, the comforter begins to take shape. Workers grab the edges of the bundle and stretch it wide to match the dimensions of the desired comforter, and layer by layer the comforter begins to take shape. It can take anywhere between 100 and 400 of these thin layers to make a comforter, depending on bed dimensions and desired thickness. Since it takes many cocoons to make each layer, a silk comforter may be composed of thousands of silk cocoons.

Once the silk fiber layers are stacked together, they are sealed inside silk or cotton fabrics and the comforter is complete. The result is extremely light-weight despite the silk comforter's thickness. Silk comforters provide excellent insulating properties similar to down, but tend to be less bulky than down duvets. Silk is a breathable fabric, making silk comforters comfortable in a wide temperature range.  Thin silk comforters are used even in the summer.

In the [[United States|U.S.]], silk comforters are imported mainly from [[China]] or [[Taiwan]] and are priced about the same as [[duvet|down comforters]]. Unlike other natural fibers used in comforters, silk is naturally [[hypoallergenic]], and it does not require any processing chemicals during the manufacturing process.<ref>{{cite web|last=Attard Trevisan|first=Adrian|title=COCOON SILK: A NATURAL ARCHITECTURE|url=http://www.senature.com/research/publications/cocoon-silk-a-natural-architecture|publisher=Sense of Nature|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507085636/http://www.senature.com/research/publications/cocoon-silk-a-natural-architecture|archivedate=2012-05-07}}</ref>  A silk comforter is a good alternative for people who are allergic to goose down comforters.<ref>See {{cite web | url = http://silkcomforter.info | title = Silk Comforter .info}} for more details and photos of construction process.</ref>