STORY: These silk lamp shades are made from silkworm cocoons, using a process that ensures the silkworms are not harmed These women meticulously remove the silkworms from their cocoons using their ...

SHAANXI, Northwest China — Inside a steam-filled workshop, Zhang Wurong is working furiously to feed mountains of cocoons into a silk-reeling machine. The machine allows the 59-year-old to harvest ...

Workers in Afghanistan's Herat Province are still producing silk the traditional way, separating the fabric from the silkworm cocoons in boiling pots and weaving on wooden looms. But the industry is ...

My eight-year-old daughter Nancy appears in the kitchen looking cross. ‘What’s that disgusting thing bobbing about in the bathroom sink?’ she demands. ‘It’s just a silkworm cocoon,’ I reply airily — ...