Sericulture (The Process of Making Silk)
Sericulture (The Process of Making Silk), attributed to Liang Kai (Chinese) early 13th Century
Section 1 (right): Women prepare silkworm eggs, placing them on trays that are stored vertically on a frame. Section 2 (center): In the house at the right, the silkworms are placed on trays together with mulberry leaves upon which they feed. The trays are then placed one above the other on a frame. In the top center section, spinning frames for the silkworms are being prepared. While one man ties bundles of twigs, others arrange the bundles on mats supported on frames. Eventually, the worms will be placed among the twigs to spin cocoons. At the left, cocoons are being placed in baskets. In the lower center section is a large jar fitted with a reed lid. It may have been used for damping cocoons-sealing cocoons in a jar with salt in order to kill the worms before they eat their way out of the cocoons. Section 3 (left): Four scenes are represented. Starting on the right, cocoons are being weighed while a child and three adults working at a table sort cocoons and place them in baskets. In the next scene, some cocoons have been placed in water heated by a fire to loosen the ends of the filaments. The man seated on a bench in front of a silk-reeling machine picks up several filaments to form a thread that is being wound on the reel. The third scene shows the process of spooling. Skeins of silk formed on the reel of the silk-reeling machine are stretched onto a wooden frame and then rewound onto small reels. The final scene, on the left, shows silk being woven. 
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