Brick Stitch In Silk - Process

Often we look at the projects created by our friends in the SCA and don't think about the labor that goes into them beyond the obvious. In my case, I'm working on my first brick stitch project using silk; previously I've worked in cotton, and that process has been simple enough. You select a length of (usually DMC) cotton embroidery floss, and get to work embroidering the pattern.

With silk, however, especially if you buy skeins of it from SCA merchants, there are additional steps involved that make the project more labor intensive. Whereas cotton embroidery floss is usually six-ply, the silk skeins are one or two ply. The silk must be separated from its skein, and then pieced off into the six-ply strands needed to embroider.

I chose to do several 18-20inch long cuts of thread, as that's the length of the strand I work with while embroidering. I set it up either between my toes (which is incredibly uncomfortable) or on my loom:

And next, one by one I cut the pieces of silk:

Then wrap them onto a plastic embroidery card:

The process can take a few hours, especially when you figure in how tangled silk can get. That's just for the set-up! Once you get to working on the embroidery itself, it's a massive undertaking. 

In this case, I only purchased nine skeins, and that was back in September. Those nine skeins of silk will probably finish off the panel pictured (and a little more besides), so I'll need nine more to accomplish the project I want. 

Thank goodness I don't have to process the silk myself, right? ;)

- Ciosa