Hello all! Many weeks ago, I asked questions about Soie Ovale & other “flat silk” threads. I have an upcoming project that requires fine, colored silk threads with low twist. Thanks to the Silk King, Francis B, I now have a better understanding of silk thread construction! Sue Babbs kindly sent samples of Bart & Francis 70/2 150 denier, Soie Ovale & Piper’s silk floss to help me decide what might work. And YES—you can make a very useful sample with 2yds of thread! ;-) I posted photos of some stem segments, 2-3mm wide, on Flicker. From the top—B&F 4pr, Piper’s 5pr & Ovale 6pr. Trish Nguyen at Thistle Threads mentioned in her blog that Ovale was divisible but seeing is believing. While removing each of Sue’s threads from their ID tags, I managed to snag the threads so I used a tiny sponge dampened with water to smooth the fibers/reconstitute the threads. The strands of Ovale did not readily rejoin each other so I tapped the end of the thread & voila—6 dist! inct strands easily separated. It is slightly finer than Piper’s floss & when I measured the single strand, I estimated 40 wraps. (According to Brenda, Soie Ovale is 13 wraps.) While this would be a major undertaking for a large project, it is do-able in a pinch. However, before dividing Ovale I think I would take a closer look at color availability in B&F 140/2 75 denier, also 40 wraps. Lastly, I stumbled upon Kreinik silk Serica, a 3-ply that is divisible. This has been quite an adventure in filament silkdom! Thanks for all the help Arachne! Sincerely, Susan Hottle in Florida, USA
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