Throughout my textile career, I’ve always been the recipient of things people get rid of. I’ve inherited most of the furniture in my home, work equipment, and in this case, over 15,000 yards of a dry-look Japanese silk thread. It’s taken years to unearth all the boxes I’ve accumulated and store them on my shelves let alone use them in projects.
As a vegan, the world of silk is out-of-bounds just from the sheer nature of how it’s collected. I’ve toiled back and forth with this question of what to do about it for years and ultimately have decided to use my stock instead of give it away. I can only know how I’ll appreciate using it and cannot guarantee that someone else will do the same.
For this project, I began with a tester to try different warp and weft combinations. I’ve been dabbling with doing a round of development for my wall before each set of scarves, and of course, documenting every detail along the way. The combination I fell in love with is a blend of organic cotton, reused silk, and white alpaca. Heaven. I’d had these in mind for a while, but began these the day David Bowie passed hence their little bit of gold metallic glam.
Looming Jane 