At 05:49 AM 5/9/2006, you wrote:
Whoo, I nearly missed this one....
I have already offered at another list, where it
came up, to have a look at that particular
velvet from Distinctive Fabrics under the
microscope, cause that's what I do with all my
so called "silk velvets". The problem with burn
testing is that rayon is sometimes hard to
differentiate by smell and behaviour, but a
bleach test will normally tell you straight away
if it's rayon or silk. Under the microscope, you
will see the striations of the silk (irregular,
with small bits of sericin on the fibres) and
you can compare them to rayon striations (which
are very regular, seeing that it's pressed
through a nozzle when the fibre is created, and
no sericin of course). There is also a
difference in thickness of an individal rayon fibre and a silk filament.
The only place so far that I have been able to
find easily obtainable 100% silk velvet is in
Germany, a place called "Gewand und Tand" (very
loosely translated: Garb and stuff). They sell
white silk velvet, 140cm wide for ~59
(~US$70)/m, and I've analysed the fibre content
under the microscope, it's the real deal! The
one from the Silk trading company is indeed very
heavy, but only the pile is silk, since they
need their fabrics for upholstery and make the
backing out of tough man-made fibres for that purpose.
Since I don't do later periods (as in 17th
century upwards) I can't speak for those
velvets, but some early velvets (14th, 15th
century) in the V&A in London show a very low
pile and beautiful sheen and that's even in a
sample that has three different heights of cut
and uncut velvet. The silk velvet from Germany
has a low pile, but a wonderful sheen, which is
nothing like the rayon pile. I got several
samples to compare and I took it to the V&A as
well and it really looks the part... the only
difference is that the original textiles have a
pattern woven in different colours.... but I'm
working on at least getting a two height cut
pattern working even if the fabric will be one
colour only. It's not too heavy, but with a
nice lining, it drapes wonderfully.
Hope this helps, if anyone is interested in the
German source, I can post the link.
Cheers,
Caithlinn
I just received a sample of the black 'silk
velvet' from Distinctive Fabrics. I will try the
bleach test on it and report back.
Joan Jurancich
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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