I collect silk cloth, but have trouble cutting it due to loss of function in my hands. I also quilt (or rather, collect quilt stuff and read about it a lot). There’s a thing called English Paper Piecing, where you cut fiddly shapes using wax paper as stabilizer. This helps prevent distortion of the cloth when being cut and handled.
For this experiment I used a piece of silk twill (not thick, but not organza, and a little thicker than your standard plain weave silk scarf). I sandwiched it between two pieces of wax paper from the grocery store.
Use a hand iron, no steam, on ‘silk’ setting, and press the sandwich for 10 seconds. I had a t-shirt below, and a handkerchief above, to absorb any errant wax.
I mark the ‘inside’ of the sheet of wax paper with a sharpie, so I can tell which side goes against the paper. Do it right away, since both sides look and feel alike; but they are not.
Hold the sandwich down with magnets on edges and center. (Yes, those ceramic magnets break, but now I have a strong, small magnet adhered to some waste wood.) During the cutting, there was very little flapping in the breeze, and nothing flew around inside the GF.
I intentionally cut the silk on the bias, so it could deform if I mishandled it taking the mask off. Woo hoo, no deformation! The flat bottom corner was my placement mistake re: edges of the cloth.
Earlier I had tried some masking tape on the bottom. It held very well; so well, I could not separate the tape from the cloth. No problem, it’s in my library of experiences.
There was no residue. I’m not sure how it works, but if the quilters recommend it, then it’s probably OK. I never read of a problem with residue in quilts.
When I’m excited about a technique, I tend to go into ‘overkill’ mode. Now that I’m calmed down I will do more experimenting. I wanted to make sure it went thru the paper ok. My earlier experiments with tape left uncut areas.
You can also just stick the silk to a piece of paper masking (I use the 12" wide stuff for vinyl cutters) like I did here (note: silk cutting settings obviously not optimized):
I think my iron settings along with the press cloth allow the wax to form a gripping surface with the silk, but there’s not enough heat to fully melt it into the fibers. Once cool, it hangs together like a well-cut puzzle. Easy to peel apart after the laser is finished. I have not seen wax residue on any of the cloth I’ve cut so far (silk, quilting cotton).
Long ago, I used to stiffen pieces of silk with starch for precision cutting. Of course, you have to wash it out of the silk when you are done. Not sure if that is any use here.
At first I thought, “Nah, edges would shred when you wash it out, even gently.” Then I thought about it from the point of view of a fiber artist. 1) maybe the starch allows ironing in seam lines…[OMG, precise convex curve adjustment cuts! and scoreing the underside of the turned edge] for applique or other techniques requiring a turned edge, or 2) frayed edges are just what the artist wanted. [designs cut out of the calf area of jeans].