Thursday, July 21, 2011

Silk Hankies ~ 100% Cultivated Silk

I've had these in my studio for almost a month now. I can't believe it's taken me this long to open them up and list these beauties in the shop at Wind Rose. It's a testament to how occupied my summer has been!

What are silk hankies? Silk Hankies are made by spreading out individual silk cocoons onto a square wooden frame. The original Japanese name for silk handled this way is mawata, which means "to spread out".

When you buy 1oz of Silk Hankies, you receive several dozen hankies. These can be spun into yarn but have also become popular in other areas of fiber art. They can be used in paper making, to embellish nuno felted projects, needle felting and more.

These hankies are dye free, but they can be dyed with dyes made specifically for working with protein fibers like Jacquard Acid Dyes. I haven't dyed any myself yet, but I can't wait to paint a few. They're so pretty. The more I look at them and handle them, the more ideas I get for how they may be used. I think the creative minds out there will have a wonderful time with these!

1 comment:

Heather Woollove said...

Jenn--I love Mawata hankies! Here are two of my older posts, showing how I use them in wet felting.
http://woollove-functional-fiberart.blogspot.com/2009/12/mawata-silk-love.html
http://woollove-functional-fiberart.blogspot.com/2009/12/please-sir-i-want-moremawata.html
XXO-