Silk

“ Or if silk were preferred, the silks of past centuries were at once thick, firm, soft and pure, quite free from the dress or artificial thickening, by whose aid a silk nowadays tries to look rich when it is not. The oatmeal cloth, diagonal cloth, cotton-backed satin, velveteen and plush, so much used now, are very inferior materials as grounds for needlework to the hand-loom linens and silks on which so large a part of the old embroidery remaining to us was worked. ”

“ In both figures the whole of the person, the fleshes, as well as clothing, are all done in woven white silk cut out, shaded, and featured in colours by the brush, with some little needlework here and there upon the garments and accessories. The figures of the saints are “applied;” and one cannot but admire the effect which a few stitches of rich green silk produce upon the canvas ground, while a piece of applied silk, slightly shaded by the brush, is an admirable imitation of a rocky cliff. The two tall trees and green garlands between them are telling in their warm tones. ”

“ Silk is either red, black, white, or yellowish, weaving in colours not being known. The frequent mention made of birds’ feathers may serve as a proof that they were used for embroidery, which in primitive times was more an ‘opus plumarium’ than embroidery proper, which is the forerunner of the art of painting. Feather crowns, kilts, and dresses are still in use amongst the savages of our own times. The colours are given by nature, and suit the grotesque taste of the undisciplined mind by their bright variegations and incongruities. ”

“ And have you ever visited our silk mills at Pont-de-Saint-Michel? No? Ah, but you should do so. It is only an hour's journey, and if you are to raise silk you must learn all you can about it. If I should give you a letter to our foreman would not Madame, your mother, be willing you should go? ”

“ Let her despise the webs of silk-worms, the fleeces of the Seres, and gold beaten into threads. Let her prepare such garments as may dispel cold, not expose the body naked, even when it is clothed. Instead of gems and silk, let her love the sacred books, &c.
Because we do not use garments of silk, we are reckoned monks; because we are not drunken, and do not convulse ourselves with laughter, we are called restrained and sad: if our tunic is not white, we immediately hear the proverb, He is an impostor and a Greek.—Epist. ”

“ Piece of Purple Silk, double-dyed, the pattern formed of squares filled in with a Greek cross amid conventional ornaments. Sicilian, 12th century. 71⁄2 inches by 9 inches.
The warp is of linen thread, the woof of silk, and as the two materials have not taken the dye in the same degree, the ground is of quite another tone from the pattern, which is, in a manner, fortunate, as thus a better effect is produced. ”

“ The silk fiber is all in one piece, and about one thousand feet long. There is always a portion of the cocoon which is too tangled to be wound, and it is made into what is called spun silk. Spun silk is carded like wool. ”

“ A work composed of many threads of fine linen or silk, interwoven one with another according to some particular pattern. Belgium, France, and England are the principal countries in which this manufacture is carried on; vast quantities of the finest laces were formerly made in Flanders.
From what is Silk produced?
From the silk-worm, an insect not more remarkable for the precious matter it furnishes, than for the many forms it assumes before and after it envelopes itself in the beautiful ball, the silken threads of which form the elegant texture which is so much worn. ”

“ Silk and Gold Damask; ground, bright green silk; design, in gold, conventional artichokes, large and small, and harts, and demi-dogs with very large wings, both animals having remarkably long manes streaming far behind them. Sicilian, 14th century. 27 inches by 14 inches.
This beautifully and richly wrought stuff, with its fantastic design [Pg 42] drawn with such spirit, must have been, when seen in a large piece, very pleasing. Its last use was in a chasuble of rather modern cut, to judge from its present shape. ”

“ Mind, good reader, it must be silk, not bombazine, or any of the cotton varieties of black, as the admirable effect of silk depends upon its gloss, which makes the garment full of those subdued and reflected lights which give motion and play to the drapery. ”

“ Silk Damask; ground, crimson; design, a net-work in broad bands of yellow silk and gold wrought like twisted cords, and the meshes, which are wreathed inside with a green garland bearing green and white flowers, filled in [Pg 36] with a conventional artichoke in yellow silk mixed with gold thread, and edged with a green and white border. Spanish, early 16th century. 17 inches by 151⁄2 inches. ”

“ Silk, we have seen, loses about one-fourth of its weight in scouring. To obviate that loss it has long been the practice to dye some dark silks “in the gum,” the dye combining in these cases with the gum or gelatinous coating, and such silks are known as “souples.” Both in the gum and in the boiled-off state silk has the peculiar property of imbibing certain metallic salts largely and combining very firmly with them, the fibre remaining to external appearance undiminished in strength and lustre, but much added to in size and weight. ”

“ The Hood of a Cope; silk and gold; ground, fawn-coloured silk; design, bands, in gold thread, alternately broad, figured with harts couchant, and flowers with an oblique pencil of rays darting down; and narrow, marked with rayless flowers. Underlying the latter gold band is a very broad one of silk, figured in green, with collared dogs running at speed towards a small swan, with sprigs of flowers, green and white, between them. Sicilian, late 13th century. 141⁄2 inches by 131⁄2 inches. ”

“ If the ladies want silks, we have the mulberry here of all kinds; we have the silkworm eggs here, and we have made the silk. Go to work now and raise worms, and wind the silk, and weave it and make all the satin ribbons you wish for. ”

“ Pieces of Stuff for Silk Sashes; pattern, perpendicular bars, some whity-brown figured with gold and silver flowers, some plain olive green, and bordered on both edges of the stuff with bands of whity-brown ornamented with sprigs of gold flowers. Oriental, 16th century. 2 feet 41⁄2 inches, by 11 inches.
The trimming and cross, done in tinsel, show that its last European use was for the church; in the East, such silken stuffs, in long lengths, are worn about the waist by men and women as a sash or girdle.
1038.
Chasuble-back; ground, green satin; design, scrolls in raised red silk thread. ”

“ The perfect scouring of silks removes from 20 to 27% of their weight, according to the character of the silk and the amount of soap or oil used in the working. Scouring renders all common silks, whether white or yellow in the raw, a brilliant pearly white, with a delicate soft flossy texture, from the fact that the fibres which were agglutinated in reeling, being now degummed, are separated from each other and show their individual tenuity in the yarn. ”

“ Silk plush and the coarser varieties of buff colored fabrics are made of this silk. While manufacturers do not favor the wild silk, the coarse uneven weave and softness make it a favorite with artists and it is being used for interior decoration as well as for clothing. ”

“ Home-made silks are the staple—silks in checks of pink and white, of yellow and orange, of indigo and dark red. Some are embroidered in silk, in silver, or in gold; some are plain. All are thick and rich, none are glazed, and none are gaudy. ”

“ FEEDING THE SILK WORMS.
CLEARING THE COCOONS.
The culture and manufacture of Silk, appears originally to have been confined to the Empire of China, and even at the present time, no country produces this useful material in such large quantities, or of so fine a description. When silk was first brought into Europe, so little was known of its origin, that the most absurd tales were told respecting it; by some it was said to be a kind of fleece, which adhered to the branches of trees; by others, the bark of the tree itself, and by another party, the production of a flower. ”

“ Moire Antiques Dyed and Watered.
Velvet Dresses, Mantles, &c., Dyed, and the Pile raised.
Gentlemen’s Clothes, British and Foreign Shawls, Fancy Silk and other Dresses, Furs, Feathers, and Gloves Cleaned.
W. T. E. especially invites the attention of Ladies to his unique and novel invention, by which an elegant design can be placed upon any Dyed Silk, in White, Orange, Blue, Green, or Mauve, giving the Silk all the appearance of the richest Brocades. ”

“ Magic Silk.—It seems like the trick of the magician to speak of turning cotton into silk, but it can actually be done, or at least cotton can be made to resemble silk, so that discrimination between the two fabrics is impossible. ”

“ After colour in draperies come texture and quality, and these need hardly be discussed in the case of silken fabrics, because silk fibre has inherent qualities of tenacity of tint and flexibility of substance. Pure silk, that is silk unstiffened with gums, no matter how thickly and heavily it is woven, is soft and yielding and will fall into folds without sharp angles. This quality of softness is in its very substance. Even a single unwoven thread of silk will drop gracefully into loops, where a cotton or linen or even a woollen thread will show stiffness. ”

“ Uses for Clothing.—The manufacture of silk is due to the production of raw silk by the silkworm, the caterpillar of a moth. It lives upon the mulberry and makes a cocoon from which the silk is wound. The Chinese silkworm is now raised to a slight extent in southern California. China, Japan, Italy, and France, because of cheaper labor, are the most successful silk-raising countries. ”

“ I think I'll have a black silk, Madame Cie; but I must not say anything to the doctor about it just yet, or he might think me extravagant.”
“No one can ever think a lady extravagant for buying a black silk; it's such a useful dress; lasts forever—almost.” ”

“ It has been well observed by Pullein, a writer on this subject, that “there is scarcely anything among the various wonders which the animal creation affords, more admirable than the variety of changes which the silk-worm undergoes;” but the curious texture of that silken covering with which it surrounds itself when it arrives at the perfection of its animal life, vastly surpasses what is made by other animals of this class. ”

“ Silk is derived from the Latin sericus, soft; and Satin from the Italian seta, a species of silk distinguished for its gloss and close [177] texture. Variegated silk or other stuff bears the name of Brocade in accordance with the Italian verb broccare, to prick, to stitch, to figure; Damassin is a damask cloth interwoven with flowers, or silver, or gold; Sarsanet is a fine silk, originally made by the Saracens; Mohair is properly Moorhair, or the hair of the Angola goat introduced into Spain by the Moors ”

“ Native-grown spun and woven silk forms such an important part in the national costumes of the people that it has attained to great perfection without attracting {165}much foreign notice. The silk petticoats of the women, the velvet jackets and trunk hose of the men, the beautiful silk and woollen mantas, with their deep fringes of silken or woollen balls ”

“ From the above it will be seen that the hair to be woven is placed in the brushes which lie upon the table; the roots allowed to project a little, and convenient to the workman’s hand. The three “strings” as they are sometimes called, are in reality silk, one skein of weaving-silk being wound round each groove of the weaving-peg. The silk can be had either fine, medium, or coarse, according to the taste or requirement of the user. ”

“ As trade grew up, she brought these fine silken textiles to our markets, and articles of dress were made of silk for men’s as well as women’s wear among the wealthy. At what period the raw material came to be imported here, not so much for embroidery as to be wrought in the loom, we do not exactly know; but from several sides we learn that our countrywomen of all degrees busied themselves in weaving. ”

“ For example, the early French silks from monastic establishments are not remarkable for either style or texture till the sixteenth century, when they came to the front as a national manufacture, and have held the highest place in silk-weaving ever since. ”

“ Silk is now grown nigh as common as wool, and become the cloathing of those in the kitchin as well as the court; we wear it not onely on our backs, but of late years on our legs and feet, and tread on that which formerly was of the same value with gold itself. ”

“ In the same way, if before the discovery of silk, any one had said that there was a kind of thread discovered for the purposes of dress and furniture, which far surpassed the thread of linen or of wool in fineness and at the same time in strength, and also in beauty and softness; men would have begun immediately to think of some silky kind of vegetable, or of the finer hair of some animal, or of the feathers and down of birds ”

“ Damask, silk and cotton; ground, green; design, large and small conventional artichokes, in gold and yellow silk, amid garlands in white silk. Italian, 15th century. 2 feet 10 inches by 1 foot 31⁄4 inches.
Though much cotton is mixed up with the silk, and its gold was of an inferior quality, still the crowded and elaborate design of its pattern makes this stuff very pleasing. ”

“ Now, whereas Silk may be dyed or ting’d into all kind of colours without boiling or dipping into hot liquors, I ghess the reason to be two-fold: First, because the filaments, or small cylinders of Silk, are abundantly smaller and finer, and so have a much less depth to be penetrated then most kind of hairs; and next, because the substance or matter of Silk, is much more like a Glew then the substance of Hair is. ”

“ From the first to the sixth centuries, poets and historians continually speak of silk, [249] praising its beauty or blaming it as extravagance or luxury; but according to Yates, all the information we collect from these sources requires to be tested as to accuracy, and is often erroneous.
I have spoken of the first silk-weaving in Cos, 300 B.C. The first arrival of the silkworm in Europe was in the sixth century, 900 years later. Cosmas Indicopleustes and another monk brought eggs from China in the hollow staves they carried in their hands. ”