Hello David and everyone Here is a degumming recipe from Celia Quinn:
For one pound of raw silk, use 4 oz. washing soda (sodium carbonate) and 4 oz. pure soap, e.g. a bar of Ivory (or your Lux) chipped, or grated. In a pot with a few inches of water, simmer the washing soda and soap until dissolved. Add lukewarm water so that the silk will have enough to float, add the silk and simmer an hour or so to soften it. Rinse while hot to remove most of the gum, soap and soda. In a new bowl or pot of water add about 1/3 cup of white vinegar, soak for 10 min. to neutralize the alkalinity. Rinse a few more times in clear water. David you might want to try a bit with just some soap and a simmer bath in case that will be enough with the water where you are, without having to fuss with washing soda, then vinegar. On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 6:59 AM, David C COLLYER <[email protected]>wrote: > > I bought a large skene of it and it's about the thickness of hair, but he > explained to me that this is in the raw state, and that if I boiled it with > pure soap it would become really white, soft and glossy. I'm fairly sure he > was saying pure soap (like Lux or Velvet). But does anyone here know the > actual method/recipe. > > -- Bev in Shirley BC, near Sooke on beautiful Vancouver Island, west coast of Canada - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent
