Silk Floss

I'm really interested in starting to stitch in silk. There are several brands
out there with several price ranges. Could someone share their experience with
silk floss and their recommendations. I live 85 miles from LNS, so I usually
order from the internet or ebay. And I usually purchase a large order at a
time. Thanks for your help.
Rhea from KY, USA

I'm interested too as I've started TW's Peacock Tapestry and a number of
people have used different silks to stitch the peacock. I've asked on
the TW board the reasons for choosing the different companies as I'd
like to try them too. Our local LNS (the only one!) does not stock many
and most are varigated (Caron, I believe). I'm always enthusiastic about
learning something new! Looking forward to reading the responses to this
"silk thread"!! g
Jeanine in Canada

Rhea wrote:
I'm really interested in starting to stitch in silk. There are several brands
out there with several price ranges. Could someone share their experience with
silk floss and their recommendations. I live 85 miles from LNS, so I usually
order from the internet or ebay. And I usually purchase a large order at a
time. Thanks for your help.
Rhea from KY, USA

One thing you can do is watch Ebay for Ozark Samplers "Silk Try It
Sampler." They don't have one listed right now, but this is what it
looks like:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=2369818 672

I've had very good service from them, and suspect that they would put
one together for you on request.

Elizabeth

Jeanine3 wrote:
I'm interested too as I've started TW's Peacock Tapestry and a number of
people have used different silks to stitch the peacock. I've asked on
the TW board the reasons for choosing the different companies as I'd
like to try them too. Our local LNS (the only one!) does not stock many
and most are varigated (Caron, I believe). I'm always enthusiastic about
learning something new! Looking forward to reading the responses to this
"silk thread"!! g
Jeanine in Canada

Rhea wrote:

I'm really interested in starting to stitch in silk. There are
several brands
out there with several price ranges. Could someone share their
experience with
silk floss and their recommendations. I live 85 miles from LNS, so I
usually
order from the internet or ebay. And I usually purchase a large order
at a
time. Thanks for your help. Rhea from KY, USA





--
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~living well is the best revenge~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The most important thing one woman can do for another is to illuminate
and expand her sense of actual possibilities. --Adrienne Rich
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Since you asked.......

There are two main types of silk threads - "filament" silk and
non-filament silk (I don't remember the official name). Eterna
Silk's website had a really great write-up on at one point. Most
commercial brands do not use filament silk.

Non-Filament Silk:
This silk is spun, I believe, from the outer layers of the cocoon. It
is coarser and handles much like a very smooth cotton floss. Caron,
JL Walsh, Au Ver A Soie, The Thread Gatherer, etc., are all made with
non-filment silk. These are all similar in usage, with the biggest
variance being the number of plies. JL Walsh and Au Ver A Soie are
solid colors, Caron and The Thread Gatherer are overdyed.

Filament Silk:
This silk is very shiny, very slippery, and snags on everything,
including your eyelashes and the dog across the street. It produces
the shine that screams silk, though. An indication of what you are
getting into with filament silk is that rayon was producted in
imitation of it, and rayon thread can be a pain to work with.
Filament silk is, needless to say, my favorite type of silk thread
because of how it looks stitched up.

Manufacturers using filament silk are Eterna and some Kreinik silks.
Eterna Silk is available trom Thread Express, and runs $0.75 per
skein. Skeins are 5 meters, 6 ply, 450 colors convertable to DMC
colors, with some overdyes. Just a note - dyes take differently on
different materials, so an exact match between silk and cotton is very
difficult to get, if not impossible. Eterna did get very close on all
but about 10% of the colors.

Since filament silk is difficult to work with, I would suggest you
start with the non-filament types first, as they handle much like
cotton, then graduate to filament silk. If you want to dive into the
deep end with filament silk, let me know, and I'll share some tricks
to handling it.



Handling silk threads (from the people who taught me Japanese
Embroidery):

Make sure your hands are clean. Silk, especially filament silk,
absorbs the oils in your skin very easily.

If your hands are rough, use conditioners, lotions, etc., *after*
working with the silk. Do not use just before as some can take up to
an hour to completely absorb into your skin.

Do not touch your face as you are working, as you will transfer the
oils from your face onto your hands, and thus onto the silk.

If you lick your floss, make sure your mouth is clean - ie. sip water,
not soda or coffee, stay away from snacking as you work, etc., etc.

These are good rules, but can be hard to follow until you retrain
yourself. I do know they are very true for filament silks from pure
hard experience. I must admit, I am fanatical about these rules when
using filament silk, but not with the other - since it doesn't seem to
absorb the oils so much, I don't worry about it too much.

Hope this gives you what you were asking for.



On 21 Jan 2004 01:21:14 GMT, ojunk (Rhea )
wrote:

I'm really interested in starting to stitch in silk. There are several brands
out there with several price ranges. Could someone share their experience with
silk floss and their recommendations. I live 85 miles from LNS, so I usually
order from the internet or ebay. And I usually purchase a large order at a
time. Thanks for your help.
Rhea from KY, USA

Wow, Fran, thanks so much! That helps me tremendously and I'm sure Rhea
will feel the same when she reads your reply.
Jeanine in Canada

From: fran

There are two main types of silk threads - "filament" silk and
non-filament silk (I don't remember the official name). ........

That would be "stranded silk". I have worked with both and they are just as
Fran has described. My favourite stranded silk is Splendor from Rainbow
Gallery. It is a 12 ply silk and comes in more colors than you can imagine --
most of which have a close match to DMC.
I stitched a hummingbird bellpull for my DSis and did the whole thing in
silks & rayons. The hummers were in rayon because it is *soooo* shiny and the
flowers and leaves were in silk. I had to use both stranded and filament silks
to get all the colors I needed but I did manage not to have to mix the two
types within the same deesign element, ie: a leaf or flower petal. I f a leaf
needed 3 colors of green then they were all eith filament or stranded. I did
mix the types on distinct parts of a flower -- leaves in stranded and pistils
in filament. If there is a distinct difference in the elements of a design
section (either in color or the design itself), then mixing stranded and
filament wasn't a problem. I did try mixing them on a leaf that shaded from
light to dark green and it didn't look right. I liked the look if the veining
of the leaf was a different silk than the body of the leaf. Trying to blem the
2 types of silk within the shading of the body of the leaf didn't work out at
all -- at least for MOI!
As for the actual mechanics of working with the different types of silk --
again just as Fran has described. The stranded handle pretty much like cotton
except that it is a bit more "delicate" in that it will snag on any rough spots
on your hand, etc. But it is NO WHERE near as fussy as the filament! The
filament snags without the least provocation so be careful. I use a LOT of
Thread Heaven when working with silks -- especially the filament silk. Thread
Heaven is an absolute life saver for filament silks!!!
I liked Elizabeth's suggestion of getting one of the packets of various
types of silks to try out. this will let you know if you can deal with
filament silks. It is like working with rayon so if you have ever worked with
rayon, you'll not be surprised. Again, as Fran described, the filament silk is
about as shiny as rayon and I DO mean shiny. Stranded silk has more of a
shimmer or sheen -- noticable when stitched up and really quite lovely. Keep
us posted on your progress OK? I love working with silks and have several WIPs
that incorporate it :-)! CiaoMeow ^;;^
..


PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ Queen of Kitties
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their
WHISKERS!!
Nothing is complete without a few cat hairs!

What a great response, Fran.

Some of the non-filament threads are fuzzier than others, too. Soie
d'Alger (from Au ver a Soie) is quite fuzzy, but I enjoy the end result
- though the sheen is much like cotton.

The silk that I have found to be "in between" in final appearance is
Madeira. Shinier than many, less fuzzy. Easy to use. 2-ply, bundled
in 4 strands.

I need to learn to use filament silk. I had a skein of it from Eterna
and didn't like it at all because I didn't know how to handle it. I'll
bet a laying tool is the answer.

Dianne

fran wrote:

Since you asked.......

There are two main types of silk threads - "filament" silk and
non-filament silk (I don't remember the official name). Eterna
Silk's website had a really great write-up on at one point. Most
commercial brands do not use filament silk.
[snip]

If your hands are really nasty (like mine at this time of year), wear
silk glove liners when you are working with silk. Silk glove liners are
meant to be worn under other gloves or mittens as insulation when
working/playing in the cold. They are wonderful! Available from many
outdoor-type stores and Winter Silks. In my experience they run a
little bit smaller than normal glove sizes since they are supposed to be
skin tight to fit under other gloves.

Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply wrote:
As for the actual mechanics of working with the different types of silk --
again just as Fran has described. The stranded handle pretty much like cotton
except that it is a bit more "delicate" in that it will snag on any rough spots
on your hand, etc. But it is NO WHERE near as fussy as the filament! The
filament snags without the least provocation so be careful. I use a LOT of
Thread Heaven when working with silks -- especially the filament silk. Thread
Heaven is an absolute life saver for filament silks!!!

--
Brenda Lewis
WIP: "Pink Baby" photo frame, Candamar

Wait, wait!
"Strand" is the result of putting plies together. There's 2-ply, 4-ply,
6-ply. Then depending upon manufacturer, they "bundle" these strands.
Madeira is 4 strands, some are 12 strands. You strip those and use
however many strands you want.

The word you're probably looking for is "spun" silk. Here's Kreinik's
words on the subject:
http://www.heritageshoppe.com/herita...ilkthread.html

I've used Rainbow Galleries Splendor and it's not much different from
Soie d'Alger. Madeira is a tad shinier. Not a whole lot - but a bit.

There's suppose to be a way of stroking filament silk to bring out the
sheen. Also, steam is suppose to bring out the sheen, and I've done
that and it DOES. Even for spun silk.

Filament silk (if Eterna is anything like others on the market - that's
the only one I've had that said it was "filament") doesn't look like
Splendor, Madeira or YLI. I have YLI around that is tightly twisted,
also a beautiful sheen, and no "fluffies".

To my knowledge, the difference is that filament silk is using the very
long fibers, while other silks use the waste products.

I have two Asian silk embroideries, done with filament silk that is
flat. Very fine threads. Very shiny.

Dianne

Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply wrote:
From: fran


There are two main types of silk threads - "filament" silk and
non-filament silk (I don't remember the official name). ........


That would be "stranded silk". I have worked with both and they are just as
Fran has described. My favourite stranded silk is Splendor from Rainbow
Gallery. It is a 12 ply silk and comes in more colors than you can imagine --
most of which have a close match to DMC.
I stitched a hummingbird bellpull for my DSis and did the whole thing in
silks & rayons. The hummers were in rayon because it is *soooo* shiny and the
flowers and leaves were in silk. I had to use both stranded and filament silks
to get all the colors I needed but I did manage not to have to mix the two
types within the same deesign element, ie: a leaf or flower petal. I f a leaf
needed 3 colors of green then they were all eith filament or stranded. I did
mix the types on distinct parts of a flower -- leaves in stranded and pistils
in filament. If there is a distinct difference in the elements of a design
section (either in color or the design itself), then mixing stranded and
filament wasn't a problem. I did try mixing them on a leaf that shaded from
light to dark green and it didn't look right. I liked the look if the veining
of the leaf was a different silk than the body of the leaf. Trying to blem the
2 types of silk within the shading of the body of the leaf didn't work out at
all -- at least for MOI!
As for the actual mechanics of working with the different types of silk --
again just as Fran has described. The stranded handle pretty much like cotton
except that it is a bit more "delicate" in that it will snag on any rough spots
on your hand, etc. But it is NO WHERE near as fussy as the filament! The
filament snags without the least provocation so be careful. I use a LOT of
Thread Heaven when working with silks -- especially the filament silk. Thread
Heaven is an absolute life saver for filament silks!!!
I liked Elizabeth's suggestion of getting one of the packets of various
types of silks to try out. this will let you know if you can deal with
filament silks. It is like working with rayon so if you have ever worked with
rayon, you'll not be surprised. Again, as Fran described, the filament silk is
about as shiny as rayon and I DO mean shiny. Stranded silk has more of a
shimmer or sheen -- noticable when stitched up and really quite lovely. Keep
us posted on your progress OK? I love working with silks and have several WIPs
that incorporate it :-)! CiaoMeow ^;;^
.


PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ Queen of Kitties
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their
WHISKERS!!
Nothing is complete without a few cat hairs!

Since filament silk is difficult to work with, I would suggest you
start with the non-filament types first, as they handle much like
cotton, BRBR

This is not surprising as mercerized cotton floss (i.e., DMC) was developed as
an inexpensive substitute for stranded silk thread, just as rayon, initially
marketed as "art silk" was offered as an affordable substitute for the shinier
filament silk.

Annie