▲After just over a month of non-stop munching on mulberry leaves, the silkworm grows to about three inches, and weighs nearly 10,000 times its original weight.

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Silk is one of the softest fabrics on the planet, and one of the most sought-after. Shiny, breathable, and comfortable to the touch, we often forget where this highly prized cloth, which has been harvested for thousands of years, actually comes from.

The process is fascinating to watch, made from a single strand of saliva stretching hundreds of meters, but it also comes with some controversial casualties. Click through to see surprising photos of how silk is made around the world.

▲To construct the cocoon, a silkworm twists in a figure-eight motion about 300,000 times, ultimately producing about one kilometer of filament.

▲The eggs are then incubated for 10 days, and they are still tiny when they hatch.

▲When the silkworm is ready to create its cocoon, it secretes one continuous strand of saliva around itself. This hardens into a shell which protects the silkworm during its metamorphosis into a moth.

▲In nature, the silkworm moth pokes its way out of the cocoon, which breaks the long, continuous silk strand into several shorter strands that would need to be “repaired” for silk production.

▲To get a single, continuous thread that creates the sleek, smooth texture we know and love, you must boil the cocoon with the silkworm moth still inside, before it has a change to tear its way out.

▲When the silkworm moth can emerge unharmed from its cocoon, the resulting silk has also been called Peace Silk.

▲This enormous silk mill in Pyongyang, North Korea, is just one example of how silk production has been expanded on an enormous scale.

▲If the little silk-making critters didn't grow so quickly, it would be impossible to sustain the world's desire for silk.

▲When you see the material like this, you would never imagine it was saliva from metamorphosing moths.

▲The old traditional silk processing workshops deal with the raw material in a much more intimate and scaled-down way.

▲Raw silk strands can be twisted together to create a fiber strong enough to knit or weave. Different twisting methods can also produce different types of thread, from crepe to organzine.

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Now you might understand the price of those handwoven silk scarves from small workshops, as they deserve the higher price!

▲Pictured is an Afghan worker in Herat, spinning silk in a traditional workshop.

▲Silk was traditionally made by women in rural villages on a much smaller scale, but many women, like those pictured here in the rural area of Yugan, Jiangxi province, continue to work with the silkworm cocoons.

▲The traditional workmanship has largely been replaced by mass manufacturing.

▲Silk yarn is produced in a much less glamorous process than what one might have imagined.

▲The cocoons are boiled or steamed to soften the shell and make it easier to unravel the silk thread.

▲The heat softens the binding agent in the cocoon, so that the filaments can be unwound. When the softened sericin is left on the thread, the product is called raw silk.

▲When broken strands are woven together, the resulting threads have little nubs, and this silk is called "slubby." But contrary to what you might think, the warm and cozy fabric it produces is reportedly priced at a premium.

▲Pictured are Palaung women and their children collecting silkworm cocoons in Wanpaolong village in Lashio District, Myanmar.

▲A woman spins raw silk yarn in a factory owned by a Rwandan textile firm that decided to capitalize on the country's ideal soil and climate for growing mulberry trees.

▲In 2014, it was reported that China is responsible for about 58,000 tons each year or about 74% of the world’s supply of raw silk. Pictured is a workshop in Sihong county, Jiangsu province.

▲Japan's Empress Michiko demonstrated her silk-making skills at the Imperial Palace, as it has long been a part of Japanese tradition.

▲Billions of cocoons are necessary to supply the silk industry, some estimate about 10 billion are required each year, so the worms must be cultivated.

▲Silk-making, or sericulture, begins with moths copulating and the females each laying about 300-400 eggs, shortly after which they die.

▲A woman is at work weaving a sari in Chanderi, India.

▲It reportedly takes the deaths of about 2,500 silkworms to make one pound of raw silk.

▲A silkworm transforms from a tiny egg weighing just half a milligram to about 10,000 times its original weight in less than six weeks.