The pictures illustrate the silkworm lifecycle and the steps required for silk cloth production.
Overall, their are 4 main stages for lifecycle of silkworm from eggs, larva, cocoon, to adult moth, and 6 in silk cloth production starting from selecting, boiling, unwinding, twisting, weaving, to dyeing.
The lifecycle begins when female moths lay eggs which takes around 10 days for silkworm larva to emerge from it, and the larva feed on mulberry leaf for about 4-6 weeks. After that, it begins to create a protective layer called cocoons by spinning a single thread of silk around themselves, which takes approximately 3-8 days, to produce a enough silk to cover their whole cocoon. Generally , they stay in cocoon for roughly 16 days, and following the given period, they transform into adult moths. After the female moths lay eggs, the cycle repeat itself.
For the production of silk cloth, at first, the suitable cocooons are selected, and then boiled in water, before being unwound into strands of silk that measure about 300-900 meter long. Subsequently, they are twisted to form thicker silk threads, and some of the threads go straight for dyeing, while the others are woven in cloth, which is then dyed.