What might have silk
from the 12th century look like? I’ve heard that some silk came back with the
Crusaders and that very wealthy ladies wore it, but I have no idea what weave would be appropriate. Can I
get away with a dupioni (which is kind of
nubby), or do I need to watch for something with a smoother weave?
All help appreciated. 🙂
~ Jannifer / Jan C. Lane
Message #927, March 19, 2003
I have heard that dupioni is fine, but a finer
weave is better.
My understanding is that silk noil is actually
less period than other silks because the
spinners wouldnt
use the short silk fibers for spinning. There is no doubt that the finest weavers in the east
could weave silk as fine as we have today and
extreme care was taken to create the
lightest, softest, and finest silk.
I personally believe (though I have nothing to
back it up) that silk noils were spun and
woven to be
available for the slightly less rich buyers. I don’t
believe the silk noil would have been wasted if
there
was a way to profit from it. Just as a
thought from a spinners point of view; silk noil is *extremely* difficult to spin because of the short fibers, the slickness of the fibers, and the
natural tendency to knot up and form little
“nubs” (a very scientific term
*wink*). These factors would (in my
opinion only) made silk noil fabric even more rare (unless the fibers were blended with something else).
So dupioni is probably ok but probably has
almost too many nubs in it to be
considered the finest available in the
Middle Ages, but it still would have been a costly and highly fashionable fabric to wear.
Just some thoughts and opinions on the subject.
In Service
~ Melisent / Kim McGuire
Message #928, March 19, 2003