Hi Liz: If you’ve done Japanese embroidery and have finished it with wheat paste, then you will know whether or not the paste will show. It might depend on the colour of thread you’ve used. Even clear glue will make a noticeable dark spot on the thread; I don’t think wheat paste will do that. However, - wheat paste works by stiffening the fibers, and if the piece is worn or repeatedly flexed for some reason, the wheat paste will break down. And of course if you wash the lace it will come out. So if you’re going to frame your piece and put it on the wall, the wheat paste will probably work just fine, but if you’ll wear it, maybe it won’t work so well.
As you no doubt know from your Japanese embroidery, if you stitch silk through itself the scales catch on one another and the thread will not slip away from that. You could put each thread through a needle and stitch it through any other thread to hold it. Of course that’s pretty tedious and there’s a strong chance you won’t be able to stitch so many threads without in some way pulling the silk out of alignment. Each method has its pros and cons; I think if you’re just planning this as a show piece you could easily firm up the knots with wheat paste and leave it at that. Hope this helps. Adele West Vancouver, BC (west coast of Canada) > I have a question about the best way to secure knots in silk thread? > > I have just finished a piece from the "Into a Circle" pattern pack using Bart > and Francis flat silk thread. I have done the sewings and tied a surgeons > knot. I have not cut off the bobbins yet and I can see that some of the > knots are beginning to open up. > > In Japanese Embroidery a dab of wheat paste is used to make sure nothing > slips. But I can hear Jeri gasping in horror from here! > > Do any of you have any suggestions? > Thank you, - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
