Cleaning silk

Vinegar is never a good idea to use with silk. I'm not certain of
the stress it causes the fibre over long periods of time, however I
do know that acids are used to "fix" many currently popular protein
dyes and depending on the dye job acids i.e. vinegar will only
increase the "fix" and potentially cause more extraneous ambients to
fix on as well.

Another wise thing to do when treating/cleaning/washing silk is the
use of synthapol which prevents the migration of dyes which may for
whatever reason, usually improperly fixed heat set dyes, wash out.

As for "natural" dyes, acids will in some cases (potassium
permanganate and there may be others) discharge dyes.

Barry Goodman, weaver

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:88
                    Distributed: Friday, May 1, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-11-88-009
                                  ***