- Our company – O Casulo Feliz (The Happy Cocoon) -, established in 1988, genuinely Brazilian, family managed, currently with 70 employees, headquarters in the city of Maringá, State of the Paraná, south of Brazil, in a region of great silkworm (Bombix Mori) cocoon production, with the following characteristics:

• Our company: artisan silk thread wiring and weaving of fabrics, carpets, curtains, wall coverings, cushions, blankets and fashion, with strong integration in the local community and with focus in the social and ecological responsibility;

• The reeling (wiring): specialized in the art of the manual and artisan reeling (wiring) of silk worm cocoons, producing threads (wires) with primitive characteristics that cause exclusive effects in our end products;

• The weaving: manual silk weaving, transforming the natural fiber into differentiated fabrics. Other natural fibers, donated from the nature - the cotton, jute, rami and the sisal - are used as creative support in the beauty of our products;

• The productive process: human hands are used in all the stages of the productive process and the machines used in the production - hand spinning wheels and sewing machines - are of internal development, giving exclusiveness to the forms of threads (wire) and fabrics;

• Raw materials: using only silk and some other raw materials of renewable resources and ecologically viable, without the use of chemical products, searching to create satisfaction without disrespecting environmental criteria;

• The coloration process/Dyeing: all the process is made with natural products, without use of chemical products, which represented the creation of special techniques of vegetal pigmentation, originating 30 types of colors, always with the help of the rich Brazilian biodiversity.

To the legend that a Chinese princess, returning in the shade of a large mulberry tea which had taken the day before, found a cocoon in your cup. Getting it in your hand and realized he could take it, like a ball, producing a long wire, bright and very sturdy. Showing to his father, it convened its weavers and the reports done, directing that produce yarn and fabrics. That sequence began using a tissue, which for centuries was used by nobles, such was his beauty. Its production was maintained at the highest secrecy, where the death penalty was the result for whom the state.

In the moth phase (adult) it starts to mate. The mating process itself takes about four hours.

The female moth expels an average of 600 to 800 eggs in a time span of 12 hours. As the moths don’t eat and drink at all, they die only 48 hours after hatching the cocoon.

The Caterpillar hatches from the egg in de size of a nidel tip ad have a strong appetite. Fast growing, they molt 5 times and undergo 4 skin changes in 25 days.

In Brazil, breeding of silkworms are done in huts where the caterpillars are laid out in “beds” and feed with Mulberry leaves.
The Caterpillar never sleeps and is constant eating leaves.

By reaching maximum growth and with full silk salivary glands their bodies turn slightly yellow and start to climb the leaves and search for a place to build the cocoons and hibernate.

In the Brazilian sericulture, breeders build a type of individual “apartment” called forest where the Caterpillar will spin his cocoon.

Now in the forest, the caterpillar starts to spin there cocoon, fixing on the walls small filaments called Anafaia, which forms the framework to support the future cocoon.
They spin around there body, inside out, for 2 days.

The cocoon will protect the caterpillar/pulp throughout the winter, until hatching in spring, starting a new cycle.

In sericulture this process is human controlled.

The industries are a selection of cocoons to distinguish the types of yarn.
Defective cocoons were not used by large companies that were spinning industry.
The spinning allows the use of homemade cocoons, creating beautiful yarns and with purpose.

The pods are cooked by soaking for two hours at a temperature of 94 degrees to have the softening of sericina to help the release of silk yarn.

Our system of spinning is all manual and it allows different types of yarn and modeling is rich in natural effects, which will make difference in the finished products.

The hands of spinner shape the wire, removing the excesses and forming a continuous filament, characteristic of silk.
The amount of wire that the spinner will use in modeling the thickness of the wire, also called Denier (Dn).

The wires are removed from the spindles (coil) in the middle, washed and placed for drying, at room temperature.

To provide consistency, firmness and resistance to the wire it is the twist.
This process varies from 01 to 500 rounds per meter.

Natural dyes are removed from the Brazilian flora and may be seeds, leaves, bark and roots.

In boiling cut up the elements of inorganic dyes, for eight hours.

After the boiling is done to coerce the net resulting in a syrup rich in elements that will be set in silk yarn.
The yarn or fabric is dipped in syrup for 40 minutes and setting the color is caused with contact with vinegar (acetic acid) and salt.

The yarn or fabric is washed under running water to remove excess ink and binding, without twisting.

It is placed in the sun the wires in mid or tissues, for 4 hours of sunshine.

Looms are of wood used in manual, for the production of fabrics and carpets.

Start the loom is urdindo, which are the structural yarns of the fabric.
In both the filling of the axis of the wire as the passage by heddles and combs, is done manually.

The weavers are the weft of the fabric, moving the shuttle with wires through the urdume, squeezing the braiding with the beat of the combs heddles.

The variety of trançados that make the models of tissues take place by the exchanges of pedals of the loom.

The fabric can have different sizes, different wires and special frames. To this end, the weaver can use different looms.

Withdrawals parts of the loom, they pass through the process of finishing as the withdrawal of tips of wires, rods and installation of drives.

The sisal (Agave spp. Agavaceae) is a plant used for commercial purposes.

The A. Sisalana is grown in semi-arid regions. In Brazil, the major producers are the states of Paraíba and Bahia.

Sisal, is mainly used fiber sheets, that after a process of cleansing and upgrading, is intended mainly for industry cordonería (ropes, cords, carpets, etc.).

The sisal, Agave sisalana Perrine, is a plant native to Mexico. The first bulbitos Agave sisalana were introduced in Bahia in 1903, by the Mayor Horacio Urpi Junior in the municipalities of Madre de Deus and Maragogipe. Probably brought to Florida, through an American firm, was initially broadcast in the state da Paraiba and only the end of the 30s at bay. Currently Brazil is the largest producer of sisal in the world and Bahia is responsible for 80% of the national production of the fiber.

Ramie textile plant is introduced into Brazil in 1939, in the southern state of Sao Paulo, which was discovered initially as an extraordinary fodder plant, mainly because of its richness in proteins. It belongs to the family of nettles but not "burn" as these, because you do not have stinging hairs.

There are many varieties of ramie but the best position to feed the animals is "Murakami", for being precocious, high productivity and large, fleshy leaves. Its value is 24% protein in the leaves and 13% in the stems, which means a protein value of 20%, higher than the protein in alfalfa.

Despite producing seeds, ramie is multiplied by rhizomes ( "roots") with gems, which are born from the stems, which are upright, with toothed leaves, green on top and silvery white on the bottom. You may reach 2.5 to 3 meters in height and 0.15 m in diameter.

Jute (Corchorus capsularis) is a textile plant fiber that comes from the family Tilioideae. This woody grass reaches a height of 3 to 4 meters and the stem has a diameter of about 20 mm. It grows in tropical and humid climates and the time to plant varies, depending on the nature and climate.

The plants bloom at 4 or 5 months after sown and the harvest begins immediately. The useful fiber is contained between the shell and the interior stem and extraction is made by a process of maceration. The plants are cut flush to the ground through guadañas, he removed the sheets, and puts them in bunches under running water or stops.

The cotton fiber is a white or whitish obtained from the fruits of some species of the genus Gossypium, family Malvácea. There are many species native to tropical areas of Africa, Asia and America, and since the end of the last ice age, and tissues were made with cotton. Currently, only 4 species are exploited on a large scale for apparel fabrics and garments health?

The fibers are collected manually or with the help of machines. Since the manual harvesting is usually done in plants, it is more a product free of impurities. In one way or another, the fibers always contain small seeds and black triangles that have to be removed before processing the fibers. The fibers are in fact caused hairs on the surface of these seeds. These seeds are also used to obtain an edible oil.

The silk is part of a history of man makes more than 3 billion years. According to legend, a Chinese princess who took tea in the shade of a large mulberry tree, found in its rate a cocoon. To get noticed he could unroll like a ball, producing a long thread, bright and very tough.
It showed her father, whom I call to weavers, they relate what happened, and ordered the construction of a fabric that was used for centuries by nobles. The production of silk thread, was held in the highest secrecy and the penalty for those who transgressed the order, was the death penalty.