De-gumming and dyeing Silk Throwster's waste

[zed]

If you've ever wanted to save yourself a lot of money and degum and dye your own Silk Throwster's waste, keep an eye on the Felting and Fiber Studio website this week.

I've posted the first part today about degumming silk throwster's waste, it's really easy and there's a tutorial with lots of photos and an easy to follow table showing quantities of everything you'll need.
feltingandfiberstudio.com/2011/12/06/degumming-silk-throwsters-waste/


De-gummed silk throwsters waste by zedster01, on Flickr

[koffipot]

I de-gummed some recently - very similar method - except I used 'Fairy' washing up liquid. I'm a bit lazy and this saved all the grating and rendering. Good results - in fact it's so amazing to see the shining strands - very satisfying.

If you have long strands, you can loosely loop them round a long chopstick or similar before placing into pan and they can be lifted out with much less tangling.

Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of this.

[pamd]

Zed, your tutorial was great, as usual! Thanks for sharing.

[Shepherdess]

I did a work shop were we reeled some silk from cocoons. It was really interesting. It was very stiff when dry and you could put it over somthing to degum. Sorry no pictures either it was a few years ago.

[zed]

Thanks everyone
That's a good tip, Judith!
I haven't tried coccoons, I was never sure what to do with them, I didn't know they could be reeled

[Shepherdess]

sure its what they do to make silk thread. the reel looks like a small wide hose reel. you have to put several strands from several cocoons together to make one thread. We heated them up in a crock pot and the you grab a thread form several with a tooth brush. Then attach them to the reel and then turn the real controlling the threads with the other hand. That's all I remember. we put dye in the water so it was easier to see the threads. it would disappear when you drummed

[zed]

Can you do that with the ones we can buy or are they 'spent' and just kind of textural?

[Shepherdess]

If you want to reel silk you get the whole cocoons witht the worm inside. The ones that they let hatch are the ones they use for silk hankies and caps. when they hatch they chew threw the thread and it is broken and is short fiber.

[zed]

Oh, I see

[Shepherdess]

I have a whole pound of this drying. Half belongs to a friend. I can't wait to pull it apart and then dye it.

[zed]

Oh cool! I can't wait to see it

[lyn]

Fabulous tutorial Zed!

[zed]

Thanks, Lyn