Tussah silk comes from wild moths. The cocoons are gathered after the moths have escaped to breed, degummed, and carded into sliver. The undyed fiber is various shades of honey brown which comes from the caterpillar's diet of tannic rich leaves. Tussah is a bit coarser and duller than the cultivated silk (bombyx), but only relatively. I think that tussah is easier to spin than bombyx and works well plied with wool, made into silk paper, or used as a decorative element in felting. Like all my dyed silks, tussah costs 28 cents per gram plus postage. I generally dye in lengths of 35 to 70 grams.
