Silk Paper

Today I did quite a bit of tidying up in the various areas of the house I have scattered with my art supplies. It is our 31st Wedding Anniversary, so we went out for lunch, we had thought of going to lunch and then too the movies. We couldn't find a movie on at our local theatres we wanted to see so we didn't bother. We had a very nice lunch out and then came home.

I spent some time playing with my gummed silk supplies this afternoon. As you can see I made 2 types of silk paper. The one on the left is the fluffy gummed silk and I simply teased it out into a thin layer on Bake paper, misted it with water and then covered it with another piece of bake paper and ironed it dry with a dry (No Steam) iron. For the right hand sample I ironed some of the silk rods flat with a steam iron and then seperated the layers and wove them together, misted them and then ironed them dry between layers of bake paper. You really do need the bake paper as other wise it sticks to the iron while it is wet. It doesn't stick when it is dry. Over ironing can cause some interesting scorching. I have read about this type of silk paper quite often but didn't have a go until my class with the lovely Isobel Hall. She demonstrated the cocoon strippings type and I just used the same technique for the woven silk rods one.
Apparently you can also put silk dys or heat activated paints in the misting bottle and spray it with that for a bit of colour. I haven't tried that yet but I might have a go.
The silk strippings and the silk rods came from Beautiful Silk.

I am planning to do some samples with machine embroidery on both. I can't do anything I have to wash so I am going to use the thermo gaze I already have as a stabiliser. I want to try out my flower stitcher as I bought it at the Quilt and Craft show and it hasn't seen the light of day.
I have used the thermogaze before and it does iron away. There is a powdery stuff you have to get rid of but at least you don't have to wash it. There are other melt aways on the market but I haven't used any of them so please tell me your favorite if you have any other suggestions. The silk strippings and rods, Thermo gaze and the flower stitcher and a book on how to use it are all available from The Thread Studio.
I don't get a kick back from any one for my advertising.
1533