Those of us who work with fabric, whether it’s making art quilts, garments or any of the other zillion things you can do with fabric, have probably at some point worked with silk fabric. I generally like using my beautiful silks sparingly, allowing the beauty, the color, the sheen of the silk, to stand out in relief amidst the other types of fabric I use.
I did break that rule though when making the little “Serenity” Quilt and made the art quilt completely in overdyed kimono silks but found the fabric difficult to work with, slipping and sliding all over the place and I can’t tell you how many times I unsewed and resewed a seam to get it straight. I think maybe because I wasn’t used to working with silk solely, or maybe because it was such a small quilt (about 12″ high) and very structured in design and quilting, that even the smallest misalignment in a seamline was evident. You can find out more about “Serenity” here, and here.
But regardless, have you ever wondered about the source of all that beautiful silk; where exactly did it originate? I remember as a young child watching, mesmerized, the silkworms in the mulberry trees as they quickly produced their cocoons; never quite realizing the amount of effort it took for even one little silkworm to produce all those lovely silken strands.
So I was delighted recently to revisit my past when stumbled across a lovely blog written by a man living in Japan who was cataloging in photos and words, his experience growing silkworms, as well as other aspects of his life in Japan working with textiles. If you’d like to know more about silkworms, or if you’d just like to enjoy a lovely story, please stop by and pay him a visit at Japanese Textile Workshops. It’s become one of my favorite blogs.
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