Silk Paper [Iron Method] September Meeting 2013

One of our own members Sandra Kendall led the workshop this month on gummy silk paper and ways of embellishing and embroidering into it. 

Sandra brought an array of samples with her based on the book by Sarah Lawrence. These included papers with natural things, incorporating other fibres and then working on the surface. The samples can be seen below.

Sandra then showed us possible ways of using our silk paper to make pictures, book covers and embroideries with patches. See below for ideas.

Sandra demonstrated gummy silk paper by laying out the fibres and then spritzing with water and finally ironing. The paper produced is very attractive in its natural state but we were then shown how to add natural thing like petals, skeleton leaves,and other gummy fibres. You can see our efforts below.

The next stage was to colour the paper with spray colours and add metallic pieces as well as natural things.

We were then shown how to pull a silk rod apart so it could be coloured and used to add texture or to be woven into the paper. We also soaked a cocoon and pulled that apart so it could be coloured and added to the paper.

Once the papers were dry members were going to have a go at embroidering into them. Sandra advised them to use an iron-on interfacing to support the paper to make it more sturdy. She also told us that anything you can use on fabric for surface embellishment you can use on the silk paper e.g.foils, 3D paste etc.
It was a fun messy day and we feel there is a lot more we can do with gummy silk paper.
Thank you, Sandra