Silk Workshop.

The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of Bombyx mori (Latin: "silkworm of the mulberry tree"), the domesticated silkmoth. see links for more info from Wiki!
More from Clare's collection of silk cocoons.

This is Italian throwsters waste silk.

And Liz also brought in some prepared silk roving to show and tell!


Here we go, look past liz's stash to see, what really got us going!


Silk caps! They are huge. The cocoons have been stripped and the silk formed into caps commercially, Liz showed how to separate the layers,
( note the clean hands, they have not returned to this state yet!)

and what it looked like spun up. LUSH.




So we had a go too.


Liz separated a single layer of capsilk and

the from the un -twisted thread, Isabel began a scarf!!
Now that's beautiful.





So here we go then, we soaked the silk, silk caps and silk yarn in warm detergenty water, to which Liz added a good "glug"of vinegar. We needed the vinegar to act as a fixative as Kemtex colours are acid dyes. Then we sprinkled the caps with dye powder, being careful not to inhale the dust!

The next stage was to press the dye through the caps, Liz reccommended a wallpaper seam roller, so that's what we used.
Then the wet caps were popped individually into plastic bags, these were not completely sealed in order that steam could escape, then the bag went into a recycled 2l icecream tub with a half inch of water in it and the whole plot was steamed in the microwave see below
for about a minuite and a half, the bag was turned, then returned for another minute and half, at high to cook, through. When the bag was removed to a safe cooling space, the silk cooled, then, was rinsed out in warm then cool water.




The result were fantastic.








This is Dorethy's Silk roving






What a way to brighten a dull day!




Then we did lunch!



Lunch mmmm... lunch, that was a fine example of a sharing lunch, thank you ladies very much.


Now back to scarf painting, Clare gave us an inspirational talk about her shibori silk scarves, then with Liz as a guide we were off.




Dorethy decided to give a previous project a new lease of life. Wow what a difference a day makes!

Clare has given a plain white scarf to a dose of animal magnatism!









The next few pictures are of work by Sarah. Inspired by shibori techniques, she made tiny daisies on a hot orange and black background. With only rubber bands and a lot of patience!














And the result. Lovely. These were just some of the beautiful silks produced. I'd like to see them all together agian, pressed and gorgeous.

I hope all the scarves made will be on show at our Summer Exhibition.