During the application, keep the silk very wet. Water spray bottle works good. Use clean, pure water. Don't use windex or anything like that. I use Sig products. As mentioned above, use the nitrate dope for application and you may also have to use a little CA to hold silk in place as you stretch it. It should be very "drum" tight while wet. Once dry, a few covering coats of nitrate to fill the weave. Let the nitrate fully dry (I wait a week, but that's me), then a few coats of Sig Super Coat to get further tighten. It is a more taunting dope than Brodak. Once fully dried, I then go to colors and finish clear with Sig Lite Coat. I really like working with silk and the "classic" looking finish you can develop. This is a picture of my niece with my Smoothie. Silk and all dope.
Jim