Spider silk instead of Tussah?

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milky

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Would it possibly be as good? I've never used or tried a silk soap but so many soapers seem to love it. A search showed that one forum member uses spider silk but not how it compared.

There's no way it would be me doing the collecting. Maybe not even the handling and adding the silk to lye water. But being a cheapskate and with Halloween around the corner, I'm curious.
 
Definitely! I found another thread in which the same member (Ancel) gave a little more detail, here.
 
I would not see why you could not. Although I would not use real sticky webs like a black widow spins. I just checked out the other link, and I will mention here that to use a silk cocoon you just cut it up and toss it into the lye water. I use silk cocoons exclusively because I find them cleaner than tussah silk. They will dissolve as long as the lye is hot
 
I would not see why you could not. Although I would not use real sticky webs like a black widow spins. I just checked out the other link, and I will mention here that to use a silk cocoon you just cut it up and toss it into the lye water. I use silk cocoons exclusively because I find them cleaner than tussah silk. They will dissolve as long as the lye is hot

My tussah silk comes in a beautiful loose wrapped skein that is totally clean and gorgeous.

I have to cut it into 2mm lengths, soak it in water and then put the lye in and stir to get it to dissolve but that's working so well now that I don't have to strain it.
 
My tussah silk comes in a beautiful loose wrapped skein that is totally clean and gorgeous.

I have to cut it into 2mm lengths, soak it in water and then put the lye in and stir to get it to dissolve but that's working so well now that I don't have to strain it.
The Tussah I received once was not very clean so never bought more
 
The Tussah I received once was not very clean so never bought more

What a pain! I get it in oz so not suitable for you but they show a picture so maybe that's what you should look for. I'll upload a pic.
It is unbleached. I got 50g and it will last me years! :)

image.jpeg
 
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The Tussah I received once was not very clean so never bought more

Oh, I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I bought a huge bag of it at a fiber fair last year. It was either 8 oz or 16 oz, I forget which size and was absolutely gorgeous. It's a cream color and ready to spin into yarn. The best quality and pricing for tussah is from fiber sellers.
 
I cannot be the only person here freaked out by spiders. All I can think of is opening a new bag of spider silk and having one of those horrible mama spiders jump out at me then squishing it and having all the babies run out. AAAAAACCKK! Now I'm itchy all over.

That said, I can see the Halloween/kid appeal. But no way I'd ever order to try it out... No sir.
 
Mine does too! The spiders are really busy this time of year. There are some gorgeous ones out there -- both the spiders and their amazing webs. I don't mind admiring as long as they stay where they belong -- outdoors!
 
The silk turned a tan color in my lye, which is different than the silk cocoons from silk worms which turn yellow. I do have to strain it since there were some leaves mixed in from taking some of the webbing from my Juniper trees, which probably contributed to the tan color. The webs melted easier than my silk worm silk
 
Hi there!
Newbie interjecting and i am just flooding my brain with info on how to make soap.
But this is super interesting. Silk in soap? That is a thing?!? What does it do and how do you use it?
 
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