October 2008 Chilly Hollow Newsletter Article

The only thing that rivals the beauty of the forest leaves outside my window in late October is the heap of silk skeins in my stash. How about we explore silk this newsletter? This website talks about the process of turning silkworm silk into beautiful silk skeins for needlework.

http://www.wormspit.com/

For the historians among us, here are two painted canvases that illustrate the process in ancient times.

http://www.artneedlepoint.com/_product_19259/Making_Cloth

http://www.artneedlepoint.com/_product_19259/Women_Preparing_Silk

Nordic Needle has a nice summary of various silk threads on the market here. Why not explore a new brand of silk? A skein of luxury is only $5-6 each and we spend that much on coffee at Starbucks.

http://www.nordicneedle.com/newsletters/stash/08.shtml

Now let's see lovely things are done in Asian embroidery with silk. Here are the designs used to teach the phases of Japanese Emboidery.

http://www.japaneseembroidery.com/Instruction/study_and_instruction.htm#Phase

Here are other pieces from the English JE site.

http://www.nuido.org.uk/

The Japanese JE site sells obi.

http://www.kurenai-kai.jp/en-gallery/index.htm

Here is the American JE site. Note the CD for sale and all those threads!

http://www.jecstore.com/

I can't help it--I'm drooling!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow