Thanks for your great question!

Silk is really made by a living thing, but silk is never actually a living thing. Just like a spider spins a web (the spider that makes the web is alive but the web never is), silkworms spin cocoons, and these cocoons can be collected and made into silk fabric (the silkworms spin cocoons to turn into moths the same way caterpillars turn into butterflies). Since these silkworm cocoons are small, collecting the cocoons to make silk fabric is very hard work (some websites I looked at say it takes 1000 cocoons to make a silk shirt!) and this is one of the reasons silk is relatively expensive.

I hope that this answers your question, and keep coming up with more great questions to send our way!

Silk is not a living thing itself, but it is made by a living animal.When we wear silk clothing, the silk in it has been made by the silkworm. People have actually been making silk from silkworms for over 5,000 years. Silkworms are not actually worms, but are caterpillars that turn into moths. When the caterpillars get ready to turn into moths, they make their cocoons. The silkworm's cocoon is made from threads of silk made by the silkworm. These cocoons are boiled in water to make a long, single thread of silk. This silk thread can then be made into clothing. Silk itself is mostly made up of two different proteins, and these proteins are what make silk so tough. Spiders also make silk in their spider webs, but spider silk is usually not used for clothing because it is hard to collect a large amount of it.

If you want to read more about silkworms and silk, I actually wrote a whole article on it and its amazing human history. Here is the link:

Silk is not made of a living thing, but it is made by them. Silkworms are not actually worms; they're caterpillars. They spin cocoons for themselves so that can change into moths. The thread that they make the cocoons out of is silk. People can collect the cocoons. When they put them in hot water, the cocoon starts to fall apart. Then they can find the end and wrap it on a spindle. If two silkworms are in one cocoon, it's not easy to get a long thread out of it, so these cocoons are used for making padding for quilts and things like that. Can you think of another animal that makes something we sometimes call silk? Hint: If you are a fly you'd better stay away from them. Thanks for asking,

Silk is a protein made by 'silkworms', which are actually caterpillars of a certain Chinese moth, much like the webs made by spiders or the hair made by mammals (including humans). Like hair, or spider web, silk itself is not alive, although of course the animal that makes it is.