[Regia-NA] Silk

[list-regia-na@lig.net]

Thanks very much for writing and posting this!  It answers a lot of
questions I, and several friends had!.
(And, unfortunately, consigns one of my dresses to the rag-bag...drat!)

--charlotte mayhew



----- Original Message -----
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To: <list-regia-na@lig.net>
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 9:08 AM
Subject: Re: [Regia-NA] Silk


> You don't say what you have, but I am assuming fabric?
>
> Silk, I think, was very rare in Anglo-Saxon England and would have come
> in the form of manufactured goods: threads, bands or fabrics. The
> fabrics themselves would have either come from Byzantium or points east
> (so you would be looking at the gorgeous patterned Islamic influenced
> fabrics).
>
> More likely, you would have seen silk threads for embroidery or tablet
> weaving. Silk referenced in Crowfoot or Bender-Jorgensen indicate an "I"
> twist to the threads. This means the silk would have been reeled
> directly from the cocoons and minimally twisted (or thrown) for cording.
> The rest may have been seen as waste.
>
> Spun silk comes from the silk left over from the reeling process. Only
> half of a cocoon is reelable (and the filament can be over a mile long).
> It is degummed (the sericin binding the cocoon together is removed using
> a soap and soda solution), picked apart, cut into standard lengths and
> combed. The combing process ends with a product called "laps" which are
> either industrially spun or sold to modern spinners in the form of
> "bricks" or roving. The combing has waste that is known as noil. The
> noil is the short bits with chaff, generally from the interior of the
> cocoon (this is where the silkworm is getting tired spinning and decides
> to give up entirely and concentrate on other things like metamorphosis).
> It is carded and spun and used in fabrics. It has a low luster and often
> has a fishy smell to it. Spun silk as an industry was started in England
> in the 1700s in Spitfials among other places.
>
> Real raw silk is silk that still has the sericin (gum) in it. It has a
> low, warm luster, forms a stiff fabric and has good water and abrasion
> resistance. What is sometimes called raw silk is really silk noil which,
> as I said above, is waste silk. Silk noil fabrics are rough and textured
> looking with a tendency to pill. An unlikely product in Anglo-Saxon
England.
>
> Dupion silk is another textured silk that has a slub surface. This was
> reserved for royalty in the east and is woven from reeled threads from
> "double" cocoons - these are the cocoons in which two silkworms have
> started spinning their cocoons adjacent to each other and form an
> overlapping wall.
>
> (can you tell I teach classes on silk?)
>
> Thora - please add your comments!!!!
>
> Joy
>
> Tate William T Jr TSgt 352 OSS/SCSC wrote:
>
> >A question for the textile experts...
> >
> >I have some small quantities of silk, but wanted to find out which was
> >correct.  I have a bit of the shiny stuff and some that is labeled "raw"
(it
> >is indeed a bit on the rough side and doesn't have the shimmer of what I
> >normally associate with silk).  Would one be more appropriate than the
> >other, or are they both equally valid, or do we have enough documentation
to
> >determine?
> >
> >Bill
> >
> >
>
>
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