It is very difficult to explain how the color(s) of a silk line will change via the oil finish process, as well as the braiding with other colors. I created this page to try to explain the process, and how the colors will change and interact with one another in the line making progress. I hope this helps, and I will add to this page as I can.
Silk is a natural fiber, and as such, becomes semi translucent when it is wet. The oils I use in my silk lines take decades to fully cure, so the silk color will remain somewhat ‘wet’ and translucent for that time. If you’ve ever seen an old, dry silk line, this may make sense to you. Another way to think of it, is how a white t-shirt appears white when dry, but shows the skin color beneath when wet. So. If we combine two contrasting colors in a silk line, the lighter color will appear darker where it overlays the darker color, which happens in the braiding process. It cannot be controlled, it cannot be mitigated, but choosing proper colors will actually take advantage of this fact, and create beautiful hues that the individual colors do not, by themselves, present. Choose the wrong colors, and it can be a muted mess. Just to be clear-If I feel you have chosen colors that will not go well together, I will let you know, but I cannot always know what a given combination will look like.
Let’s look at some examples of what I’m talking about…
The above image demonstrates how the oil varnish will “wet” out a color. The silk on the spool, as well as in the line are both white. The varnish has changed it to what I call an “Ivory”, or “Natural” color.
Again, same color thread, but this image demonstrates the before and after colors a bit better.
This demonstrates how two colors can interact. The line on the left is made with only white thread. The line on the right is made with black and white threads, but the white loos significantly different between the two lines. This is the translucence-the color of the black thread is showing through the white thread.
This image shows spools of silk before making a line. On the left is Sage; on the right is Olive.
This is a pine dowel that I have wrapped with the two colors of thread, then coated with varnish. You can see that the colors are significantly darker than the untreated thread color.
This is a black line I drew on the dowel with a sharpie before wrapping the silk on the dowel. You can see that the thread has become very translucent, showing the black underneath very clearly. NOW…..I created this to demonstrate what I’m talking about, and this is NOT what a line with these colors would actually look like, but to give you an idea of an olive and black line…
This image also demonstrates the translucence I mentioned earlier.
I hope this helps in your decision making. Please let me know how I can improve this page, or my site in general. Cheers! -Jaime Chriswisser