article_snippet: This added expertise came from Cherica Haye and Michelle Lusby, both textile arts graduates from the Royal College of Art and Plymouth University respectively, who worked on this project.
article_snippet: Michelle Lusby said: ‘Some of the most opulent silk motifs come to us from the Orient, where imperial families’ and rich merchants
article_snippet: ’ robes were made from the finest silk materials.
article_snippet: This includes a highly complex handmade ‘twelve-layer robe’ of silk worn only by female Japanese courtiers.
article_snippet: Silk for the Serenity came from the town of Suzhou in China, renowned for the town of Suzhou in China creation of imperial embroidery.
article_snippet: the town of Suzhou in China was then sent to one of Britain’s oldest mills, Vanners in in Essex, to be hand-woven into just 10 metres of the fabric – enough to clothe the interior of Serenity – in a process that took two days or two hours per meter of fabric.
article_snippet: Some 140 silk threads per centimetre were blended into the lustrous Smoke Green colour which was then hand-painted and embroidered by craftsmen from Britain and China.
highlights_snippet: Silk from China was hand-woven in one of Britain’s oldest mills in Essex .
  