Tricia continues the story of the research & development that led to the production of gilt sylke twist.

At the time we were starting this project, I was aware of only four authentic western style gold thread makers in the world: one in Spain, one in France and two in England. I am now familiar with one in Germany/Italy. I had regularly been working with the two English companies and had recently collaborated with Golden Threads to remake some threads for some of my teaching projects. 

I contacted both Benton and Johnson and Golden Threads and explored if they would be amenable to remaking this thread. If you want to get a better idea of what the thread looked like - check the close pictures of the jacket on the V&A website. While Benton and Johnson was understandably hesitant, Bill Barns (Golden Threads) was willing to talk. Bill pointed out to me that the gilt wire wasn’t that much of a problem to source, but the silk thread base was something that he couldn’t source. 

Understanding that, I set to thinking about the problem. About this time, I was working on a project using the gilt purls (also called bullions) that these companies make. These are small springs made with very thin gilt wire. I was stitching them down to the project by threading a silk thread and needle through the center of the purl. Well, sometimes the wire end catches on the silk and well, stretches. 

Sometimes when you have a ‘problem’ you are working on, a happy accident will show you a way. This was one of these times. When the purl stretches along the silk, it looks like the thread I was trying to convince Bill to make. Hmmmm….could that be a solution? It would certainly be much easier to buy a lot of gilt purl and then thread a thick silk thread of whatever color we wanted through the middle and then stretch the purl out over the silk. Each stitcher could make their threads 12-14 inches at a time. It could solve our silk sourcing problem and would be an economic solution too!

Next time - the experiments.

Tricia