[Regia-NA] Silk

[Hrolf Douglasson]

silk coppergate caps have been found so it was known as a material...but it
was twice the price of silver weight for weight so watch out how much you
have. The authentic silk is rougher and rawer than the dupoint stuff we see
now.
and a rough silk can be mistaken for linen in looks.
vara
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tate William T Jr TSgt 352 OSS/SCSC" <william.tate@mildenhall.af.mil>
To: <list-regia-na@lig.net>
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 2:12 PM
Subject: RE: [Regia-NA] Silk


> Ooops, sorry, yes, it is material.
>
> Bill
>
>
>
>
>
> WILLIAM T. TATE, JR., TSgt, USAF
> Security Manager
> 352 OSS/SCSC
> DSN 238-4827 (non-secure)
> "France's position will change if Iraq uses chemical or biological
weapons."
> Jean-David Levitte, French ambassador.
> ...Or if the Iraqi army invades France.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joy Cain [mailto:jcain@insight.rr.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 2:09 PM
> To: list-regia-na@lig.net
> 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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