With regards to silk wrapping, as was said you certainly don't HAVE to use silk but here's a suggestion in case you want to try it.

If you have a scrap piece of bamboo or graphite from a spare or broken rod or even a piece of small-diameter dowel, just play around with wrapping your silk on that. You can even try varnishing the wraps to see how they'll look after the fact so you can make a better decision on color combinations.

I didn't do this when I did my first wraps and wondered why they came out looking like ... uh ... well, you know - BAD. I had a scrap piece of bamboo and have wrapped probably 10 different test wraps, both nylon and silk, some with color preserver some bare. I'm waiting for a couple more spools of thread to make one final test and then I'll decide how to proceed.

Like you said, this is a learning experience ... take advantage of it.