Dupioni Silk

I love dupioni silk.  It is made in India and has the most beautiful sheen.  It also has slubs that give it a wonderful texture. It is a little tricky to work with.  One of the keys is a new, sharp rotary cutter blade.  Sometimes it needs to be stabilized with  a woven iron- on interfacing, but this is not always necessary.

I have been commissioned to make an ark curtain (parochet) for Temple B'Nai Israel in Easton, MD.  (The ark is where the torahs are kept.) The design was just approved.  It is my summer project.  The curtain will be made completely from dupioni silk.  So the first step for me was to head to the garment district in NYC to buy my palette of silk.   The curtain is 5' wide and over 70" high, so I need lots of it.  I ended up buying 23 colors.  Doesn't it look yummy?

My next mission was to have a slice of NYC pizza.  I grew up on Long Island, NY. Because my Mother kept a Kosher home, I had never tried pizza until I went out to eat with friends in high school.  What kid doesn't like pizza?  I loved it.  So to me, NY pizza is the best pizza anywhere.  I haven't had a slice in a really long time.  Although I was tempted by a "designer" pizza, I chose to stick with real pizza! ( Forgive the exposure please - it was dark.)  It did not disappoint.  I wish you could smell it.  I am drooling as I write.

It's often intimidating to start a new project, especially one of this size and importance.  So today I finally prepared the fabric foundation and started cutting the red silk into strips. There are 4 different colors.  It looks like tagliatelle to me. 

Stay tuned to watch this project come together.