ENTWINEMENTS

This is part 3, part 1 and 2 were earlier this week. Today the work is unglamorous and time comsuming-- to prepare the silk for pole wrapping it must be washed and ironed. No one ever asks how long did it take you to iron this scarf... they ask how long did it take you to pleat this scarf. The real answer is that it depends on how well ironed it was.

We left the dyed silk hanging on the clothes line. To hang it up we sorted it by style . Now it is easy to take down and store in totes until we need it. We obviously dyed more than enough for one set of poles.

When it has been decided what we need in one color it is picked from the storage totes and put into the washing machine. We wash with hot water, delicate cyle and use a bit of Orvus paste. Remember the silk went from the dye machine to be dried-- there was no washing. This is the only washing before pleating.

The hot water is to remove any excees dye ( there isn't very much). We use Orvus paste because it is cheap and leaves no residue that can interfer with subsequent dyeing. The washing machine was the first of the new generation; front loaders, water efficient ( max. water fill 6 gal. instead of 18 gal. for a top loader). Using the machine to wash the silk seems like it would be time efficient but when you have to deal with the tangled mass of silk you wonder.

You can see a mix of purple and black scarves just out of the washing machine. They have been through a fast spin cycle because we iron the silk wet, and this gives us the right moisture content.