Creating silk thread manually is an involved process that takes a bit of time and patience, but is rewarding. The work begins with boiling the silk worm cocoons to dissolve the glue holding the silk thread together. Once they're ready, the threads can be 'picked up' by gently running a brush over the top of the cocoons floating in the water. The individual strands are fed into a device that winds them together into one large strand as it winds them onto a wheel. The finished product is a beautiful skein of silk thread. Thanks to Michael Cook for the information. To read more about his silk worm project and how to make silk thread click here.