The traditional harvesting of silk necessitates killing the pupae before they mature into moths that will damage the cocoon can make unwinding and reeling impossible. The serecin that gives the silk its beautiful colour is also boiled away during the processing of the silk strands.
My ethics as an artist and my boundless respect for Life prevent me from killing the pupae and I also wanted to preserve the wonderful colours.
I needed to find a different way of utilising Bombyx mori's colourful and beautiful silk thread.
My breeding programme is conducted by selection and aims to determine with certainty the colour of the cocoons that are spun and to alter the spinning habits of certain worms.
Every season I experience three methods of spinning: Some worms produce their masterly shapes in a tree fabricated out of mulberry twigs. Others I house in quiver-shaped hotels. Safely inside, the worms build their cocoons. Then there are those who have to be watched closely. They spin on flat, pre-designed shapes. They do not build cocoons.
I annually creates a series of silk icons using the pre-designed shapes spun by the flat spinners and the cocoons spun by the tree spinners and the hotel spinners.
I also devises new techniques annually. Sometimes I use the shapes in combination with pins and braids or I implements the laser as a cutting device.
