Museo de la Seda Las Hilanderas

The process starts in spring with the larvae of the Bombyx mori, which feed only on mulberry leaves gathered fresh each day. After several moults the worm shuts itself into its cocoon, and the thread is drawn from it in a copper cauldron of hot water; the spinner guides it to the wheel and gathers it into skeins of raw silk. Winding, twisting and a wash in water and soap follow, which strips the sericin and returns the fibre to its shine.

Dyeing uses natural colourants from walnut husk, weld, eucalyptus and cochineal, the last of these tied to the island's export past. The weaver works at a wooden treadle loom of the model brought over by the conquerors in the sixteenth century and finishes each piece with hand embroidery: headdresses and sashes for the traje típico, bodices, handkerchiefs, ties and shawls. Silk from the island once went to mainland Spain and to Flanders.