I'm stitching with black thread on a black canvas. Regardless of what thread or stitch you are using, you need good lighting in this situation!
Flat silk is on a tube with the free end run through two slits in one end of the tube. Pull the plastic wrap off the tube and roll it up and put it in the middle of the cardboard tube so you keep the thread color number on the label, just in case. Unroll 12-18 inches at most and cut it with your best scissors, then put the free end off the tube back in the slits. I found that the flat silk would easily snag on my frame, the other stitches, the metallics, etc. so I kept it off the canvas whenever possible. I normally stitched with lengths of about 14 inches on this piece.
Always use a new needle and your sharpest scissors when stitching with flat silk. It will snag on a worn eye or worn scissors. It looks like a flat ribbon made of at least 6 filaments and probably more. Japanese embroiders twist sections together to make fatter versions of the thread for their stitching but since I am just stitching long stitches, I didn't bother to do this.
Having soft hands is a must for stitching with flat silk. All my prep time scrubbing and putting hand cream on my fingers didn't go to waste!
I knotted the end of my stitching length, then did two L stitches to both start and end the thread within the area of the geisha's hair.
Flat silk is wonderful to stitch with but you need to use a laying tool at all times to make sure the thread is laid flat.
I doubt you'll be able to see the shine of The Geisha's wig in photographs but in person it looks wonderful!
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
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