One of the easiest ways to make silk paper is using carded cocoon strippings. The strippings still have the natural glue (sericin) so all you need to do is to lay them out thinly on parchment / greaseproof paper, spray with water, cover with a second layer of paper and then iron dry. Hey presto, silk paper in minutes. I’ve laid it onto some dark wool fibres so you can see it properly.
Being a felt maker I always have that in mind no matter what I do. You can use silk papers in wet felting (and wool papers too) to give you nicely defined shapes. As long as you haven’t made the paper too thick, the fibres will still be able to find their way through and grab the silk shape on. I cut out a heart and laid it on Merino fibres.
You can see that the overall shape is affected by the direction the fibres have shrunk in and become more condesnsed but it still has crisp lines and some texture.
Or of course you can paint it with silk paints and use in many different ways. Once the paint is heat sealed it could still be used in wet felting.
