Hand-drawing Silk
Hand-drawing Silk - Related Videos
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Silk fibers have been processed and used to create fabrics and threads for centuries. However, the solubilizing of silk fibers, thereby turning it into a versatile pre-polymer solution is a much newer technology. Solubilized silk can be processed in many different ways to create a biocompatible material with controllable mechanical properties. This video introduces the processing of silk from silk worm cocoons, and shows how the silk solution can be used to create a fiber mat via...
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Motor Learning in Mirror Drawing
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Source: Laboratory of Jonathan Flombaum—Johns Hopkins University Colloquially, the terms learning and memory encompass a broad range of behaviors and mental systems, everything from learning to tie a shoe to mastering calculus (and a lot in between). Experimental psychologists have divided up learning mechanisms into groups that seem to have different properties, and that seem to rely on different brain systems. A major division is between declarative and non-declarative memory, roughly, the...
FAQs
Warm water hydrates sericin, the water-soluble protein that binds neighboring fibroin filaments within the cocoon. As this protein softens, the adhesive connections between fibers loosen, allowing individual continuous filaments to be gathered without treating the cocoon as a single solid strand. The result demonstrates how hydration can alter the handling and organization of protein-based materials.
Sericin acts as the cocoon’s natural binding material, while fibroin provides the continuous filament that becomes the drawn thread. Their different roles make the process useful for examining protein composition: hydration primarily loosens the sericin connections, whereas gathering and pulling organize the fibroin filaments into a cohesive structure. This separation links visible fiber behavior to molecular components.
Pulling gathered filaments into a common direction creates mechanical alignment within the emerging thread. That alignment connects the arrangement of fibroin fibers with the thread’s cohesive behavior and strength. Hand-drawing therefore offers a practical way to relate a visible processing step, the direction of applied force, to the broader biochemistry of how natural protein fibers acquire useful mechanical properties.
The method provides a direct observation of how water-mediated changes influence a protein-based material. Hydrated sericin becomes easier to loosen, exposing fibroin filaments that can be reorganized during pulling. Comparing the softened cocoon with the gathered thread helps connect hydration, protein arrangement, and fiber formation without reducing the process to mechanical pulling alone.
The process begins by placing a silkworm cocoon in warm water so its sericin softens and the bonded fibers loosen. The continuous filaments are then located and gathered together. Finally, the gathered fibers are pulled into a cohesive thread, allowing the operator to observe how handling and alignment transform separated cocoon filaments into a usable fiber form.
Researchers can observe the transition from a bonded cocoon structure to loosened filaments and then to a combined thread. The process makes changes in softness, filament cohesion, and alignment accessible through direct handling. These observations provide a practical basis for discussing how sericin hydration and fibroin organization influence the formation and apparent strength of the resulting silk.
Hand-drawing silk connects a traditional fiber-making practice with biochemical questions about protein composition and processing. It can support study of fibroin structure, sericin removal, hydration, and the organization of natural filaments into biomaterials. Because the transformation is visible and manipulable, the technique helps relate molecular properties to the physical behavior of protein-based fibers.