More Experiments
Tricia continues:
Last night I talked about the experiments I was doing in January trying to find a solution to the composite thread we needed for the jacket. Well, a few weeks went by and I realized that the bullion was a “s” twist and the silk was a “z” twist thread. What does that mean? Well, if you pull out a thread and look at the diagonal that the twist in it makes – either it is in the direction of the long diagonal of an S or Z.
Why would this be important? Well, as a thread is stitched, you put twist into it or it untwists. So if the silk was twisting while stitching, the spring would untwist because they were opposite and become loopy on the surface. So I needed to try a S-twist silk thread. Looking at my collection, and trust me, my stash of silk is sizable; I found that they all were Z-twist. Therefore, I would have to make the S-twist silk myself.
I have taken Japanese embroidery since I was a teenager and so I am familiar with the Japanese technique of twisting flat (untwisted) silk into two-ply threads to use for embroidery. I also have a supply of flat silk. Two types in fact (ample stash comes in handy, I always tell my husband!). So I made a 4 into 1 S-twist thread and then expanded the purl on it. It looked nice. Then I embroidered with it – see the gold wire/cream silk photo. While nicer looking, it still didn’t have the look of the historic pieces.
At the same time I was hand making some threads using the same base as used in Army uniforms and very, very thin copper wire. (Don’t ask about my day job – suffice to say it is very interesting). So I tried adding the copper wire to my 4 ply (flat) into 1 (twisted) silk when I made it. Then I stitched this detached buttonhole sample. It stitched like a dream, but again it didn’t look right.
Well – now I knew that all these methods failed. Important – sometimes you need to know what doesn’t work so when someone asks you why you know your solution was the one they used in the past, you can say why with conviction. I’m pretty confident that in the past the wire drawers and spinners were making this thread.
Unfortunately, now I needed to call England again….
