RESEARCH CONCERNING THE DESIGNERS' OPINION ON THE USE OF SILK COCOONS AS RAW MATERIAL FOR CREATING PRODUCTS OF DECORATIVE AND HANDICRAFT ART

Alexandra Matei, Agatha Popescu, Viorica Sladescu

Abstract
The paper aimed to investigate the opinion of 30 designers on the use of silk cocoons as raw material for creating products of decorative and handicraft art. The answers have pointed out that the most designers are interested to use silk cocoons in order to process, color and design as such or in combination with other materials, using mainly the manual method which involves creativity, the setting up of unique original products, reflecting the material warmth ad beauty. The main achievable products of silk cocoons in the designers' opinion, in their order of importance, are: decorative pictures on a specific theme (80%), sewed belts (50 %), colored necklaces (46.6 %) and floral brooches (33.3 %). As a conclusion, silk cocoons, mainly the unreeling ones, could be successfully processed in handicrafts and decorative art products as an alternative for production diversification, increased value added and income in the family sericicultural farms.

Key words: questionnaire based survey, silk cocoons, design, decorative art products