In early America, it was thought that silk might be a good crop in the colonies and a sericulture (silk) industry was attempted in the south. Eliza Lucas Pinckney attempted sericulture in South Carolina.
I was on a hop-on-hop-off tour in Savannah a few weeks ago and we passed a site that I did not know about, on West Broad Street, which was the original west border of Savannah.
A little research revealed that my photo shows part of the Trustees' Garden. Between 1733 and 1748, this was a site where various crops were attempted, including rice, cotton, hemp. flax, and mulberry trees for sericulture. The garden was more extensive than the photo above. It is still retained as a garden and a destination in Savannah.
Here is some history on silk in Georgia:
General James Oglethorpe was an MP in England, and the founder of the colony of Georgia, which was intended to be a place to resettle the poor and those from debtors prisons. The charter to found the colony was given to him by King George II, for whom Georgia is named, in 1732. General Oglethorpe sailed for the colony in 1732, and imported 500 white mulberry trees to Fort Frederica in 1733. This Fort is on St. Simon's Island south of Savannah. The highest quality silk is produced from worms grown on white mulberry; not native to the US.
Apparently there was a wee bit of luck with silk, as they bothered to build a silk winding facility called a "filature" in Savannah. The filature building was built in 1752 but no longer exists, it was on St. Julian St., very close to the Trustees' garden. At the time it was the largest building in Savannah. A gown was made for Queen Caroline, the wife of George II, was fashioned from silk from Savannah.
William Bartram was an early traveler and botanist and published his book "Travels" in 1773. He noted as he travelled through the south "every landowner was required by law to grow silkworms and produce silk, but only a colony of Germans at Ebenezer...were successful with this crop". Bartram found mulberry trees (morus rubra) near Wrightsville GA west of Augusta, and in Jacksonburg SC he noted (p. 306) "at plantations I observed a large orchard of the European Mulberry tree, (morus alba), some of which were grafted on stocks of the native Mulberry (morus rubra); these trees were cultivated for the purpose of feeding silk-worms (phalaena bombyx)".
(above from: https://www.tytyga.com/History-of-Mulberry-Trees-a/373.htm)
A week after my tour, I attended a workshop with Camille Hulbert, who has a studio on West Broad. Here is her website. She is, among other things, working to bring mulberry trees back to the Trustees' garden. The workshop was about doing nuno felting with silk lap (a large piece of stretched out silk fibers).
We learned how to make a cocoon into a silk hankie, first you soak the dried cocoon
Then (after removing the worm which is of course dead) you gently tease it apart into a square or another shape and you can put it on a frame
Camille will often use spray or dry paint to color the silk at this point
Here is a pot of "mulberry yellow," the soaking water from the coccoons which can be used itself as a dye...
We then did some nuno'ing onto silk lap which Camille had imported from Thailand.
Camille does source her cocoons from a farm in Georgia, however.
I was on a hop-on-hop-off tour in Savannah a few weeks ago and we passed a site that I did not know about, on West Broad Street, which was the original west border of Savannah.
A little research revealed that my photo shows part of the Trustees' Garden. Between 1733 and 1748, this was a site where various crops were attempted, including rice, cotton, hemp. flax, and mulberry trees for sericulture. The garden was more extensive than the photo above. It is still retained as a garden and a destination in Savannah.
Here is some history on silk in Georgia:
General James Oglethorpe was an MP in England, and the founder of the colony of Georgia, which was intended to be a place to resettle the poor and those from debtors prisons. The charter to found the colony was given to him by King George II, for whom Georgia is named, in 1732. General Oglethorpe sailed for the colony in 1732, and imported 500 white mulberry trees to Fort Frederica in 1733. This Fort is on St. Simon's Island south of Savannah. The highest quality silk is produced from worms grown on white mulberry; not native to the US.
Apparently there was a wee bit of luck with silk, as they bothered to build a silk winding facility called a "filature" in Savannah. The filature building was built in 1752 but no longer exists, it was on St. Julian St., very close to the Trustees' garden. At the time it was the largest building in Savannah. A gown was made for Queen Caroline, the wife of George II, was fashioned from silk from Savannah.
William Bartram was an early traveler and botanist and published his book "Travels" in 1773. He noted as he travelled through the south "every landowner was required by law to grow silkworms and produce silk, but only a colony of Germans at Ebenezer...were successful with this crop". Bartram found mulberry trees (morus rubra) near Wrightsville GA west of Augusta, and in Jacksonburg SC he noted (p. 306) "at plantations I observed a large orchard of the European Mulberry tree, (morus alba), some of which were grafted on stocks of the native Mulberry (morus rubra); these trees were cultivated for the purpose of feeding silk-worms (phalaena bombyx)".
(above from: https://www.tytyga.com/History-of-Mulberry-Trees-a/373.htm)
A week after my tour, I attended a workshop with Camille Hulbert, who has a studio on West Broad. Here is her website. She is, among other things, working to bring mulberry trees back to the Trustees' garden. The workshop was about doing nuno felting with silk lap (a large piece of stretched out silk fibers).
We learned how to make a cocoon into a silk hankie, first you soak the dried cocoon
Then (after removing the worm which is of course dead) you gently tease it apart into a square or another shape and you can put it on a frame
Camille will often use spray or dry paint to color the silk at this point
Here is a pot of "mulberry yellow," the soaking water from the coccoons which can be used itself as a dye...
We then did some nuno'ing onto silk lap which Camille had imported from Thailand.
Camille does source her cocoons from a farm in Georgia, however.
I grew up playing with silk worms on our farm in thomasville Georgia. Thanks for the background!
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