Making Silk Paper

After having been asked for about a year, I have eventually got around to showing two friends how I have made silk paper in the past.

We got together on a day that started out sunny and ended up cool and wet - actually pretty cold (for late spring).  But the process was easy and the company was enjoyable.

We laid out the silk sliver, despite the breeze.

Then we wet it with soapy water, both sides (it was sandwiched between two pieces of tulle).

We mopped up the extra water and then rolled textile medium over it, also both sides.  We tried diluted (1:3) textile medium and undiluted, depending on the stiffness we wanted.

We then hung our pieces up to dry, still in the tulle, while we had lunch.

One friend tried laying it over a bowl to get a shaped piece.  Because it was so cool and damp, I haven't seen her finished product, we had to take it with us before it dried.

Now all that has to be done it to peel the tulle off and decide what we want to do with it.  So far we have only made experimental pieces.  Now it is time to look at books and play with some of the ideas.

Two books I have, which give slightly different instructions, are Silk Paper for Textile Artists, by Sarah Lawrence, and Silk 'Paper' Creations for the Fibre Artist by Judith Pinnel.  Both have some fabulous ideas, all I have to do is try them.