Sponsored by TWIST - Tablet Weavers International Studies & Techniques
Phiala -
I'm reeling five at a time; I have tried as many as seven, but it becomes
complicated keeping them all hooked on. They then go through one hole of a
button (which is held suspended several inches above the simmering pot by a
metal rod) and then onto the reel. The resulting filament of silk is about
the size of a very fine human hair, and about as strong. The sericin gum
glues it back together as it goes through the process; it ends up looking
like one strand, although friction will eventually split it down. It's
strong for its size, but it's so light it will float in the breeze from the
ceiling fan.
My first thought, based on how much reeling is involved in getting just a
little bit of silk worked up, is to get some jewel-toned dyes and make
something like embroidery floss with the silk by taking 7-10 strands of the
filament (which would be 35-50 fibers thick, or about the size of a single
strand of embroidery floss) and twisting it very slightly in one direction
(thrown singles). From what I understand, that gives it more strength and
makes it more manageable. Then I can use this for a brocade thread. I have
enough that it will be plenty to do some good design work without making
myself totally insane. I want to be able to point to some portion of the
project (like the lettering on a ribbon) and say, "This is the silk from my
silkworms." I think that trying to make the whole ribbon out of the reeled
stuff would damage my sanity in irreparable ways.
You know how when you wind string onto a bobbin, and it gets a lump in the
middle where the string is thicker? I've reeled the silk onto paper tubes
for ease of handling, and it is almost entirely flat on the tube, despite its
hundreds and hundreds of yards. It's somewhere between fascinating and
frustrating. I imagine that I have reeled off something like a couple of
grams of silk, having worked through about 10 cocoons. I managed to get
nearly a hundred healthy cocoons from a batch that was supposed to have 50
eggs (they pack extras because of the high mortality rate and to compensate
for any that don't hatch) and I saved 15 of them to hatch and breed - and
when I found out that it takes silk from about 1,000 cocoons to make a shirt,
I realized I need to concentrate on a *very* small project.
Michael
Send private reply to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----------------------------------------------------------
To stop receiving tabletweaving (not tabletweaving-digest), send email
to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: unsubscribe tabletweaving.
To stop receiving tabletweaving-digest, see the end of a digest.
