GREENwichFORUM

04-23-09

May Leung

Silk Cocoon

The cocoon kiosk is a small silk factory, a sustainable ecosystem of mulberry leaves, caterpillars and cocoons – the essential and natural ingredients used to make silk. It hangs in memory of Spitalfields silk weavers that settled here in London, winding and reeling thread, in the 1890’s.

The silk manufacture process is as follows:

Mulberry bush growth is sustained by fish water. Caterpillars eat mulberry leaves and then spin a single strand of silk around themselves, which form the cocoon. Cocoons are boiled to remove the silk and the dead larvae within can be used to feed the fish. The fish water is used to grow mulberry.

What results is a closed ecosystem that enables the localisation of silk manufacture. The cocoon kiosk, although small, speaks out for the fight against the globalisation of silk garments imported from foreign countries. The cocoon kiosk is stripped bare to the essential elements for silk manufacture, and in so doing, reducing the carbon footprint of garment production.