Monday 22 June 2009

Blog Candy: Aimeslee


I have finally sent of my first piece of blogcandy and when you finally get to read this it will have been received by the lovely Aimeslee!

I started silk painting this year with only instructions found online to help me. I have created three painted scarves. One for me, one for Mel and now a third....


I only had four colours of paint but I have now expanded my collection to seven!

The third and latest scarf was rather more complicated than my previous efforts. I had wanted to use some Islamic art and this was a good opportunity. This meant that the design was rather more ambitious than anything I had previously tried. In this style of silk painting you use thick goopy paint to draw lines that act as barriers for the liquid paints. In this design the gutta is black and there was an awful lot to apply! I copied the block and pinned the copies to the wall and stuck the scarf on top and then copied the pattern onto the scraf. Then I had to add paint inbetween all the lines.

The borders are a little different though as there is no gutta and the paints are more roughly applied so they merge and run into each other more. The very centre was painted in grey first before the navy was added over the top. The affect of the navy paint was achieved by sprinkling some alcohol on to carry the wet navy paint.

Although I love the scarf I am not sure if I would do one like it again. It was very time consuming and the precise design was difficult to do correctly. The scarf is full of mistakes. And I don't want to think about the time it took!

The scarf has had an interesting journey to it's destination that has been considerably lengthened by arrival at the wrong address. So it actually ended it up with not one but two postal journeys...

One other thing is that the process of making the scarf has left me with quite a few pieces of interesting paper where the thick black gutta has soaked through and the liquid silk paints have soaked into the paper. Every one is different and beautiful!

7 comments:

  1. Wow!! It turned out lovely!! Quite a process, I must say...don't think I'd have the patience!!

    xo

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  2. Thanks hun! I think for you, finding uninterupted time would be the hard part!

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  3. Your scarves are so beautiful. I haven't checked this blog for a while and you have done some amazingly creative pieces.

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  4. Thank you Leone! I have fits and starts...

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  5. Rose, I love it ~ the colours are great, and the pattern is fascinating.
    And you're helping me understand what to do, as I've been making plans for some silk painting projects, and don't know where to start, so I've just been researching online. I'm still not even sure what a gutta is exactly? Maybe I'll have to ask you for a few more tips.
    And perhaps I haven't got enough patience to put in the hours that you say it took you.

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  6. Gutta is the name of a specific type of gloopy paint that comes in tubes for silk painting. If you find silk paints in a shop, gutta will be right next to them.

    It used to be just white but now it comes in colours...

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  7. scarves are beautiful Rose !! only you must know where the "mistakes" are in the one scarf!! You are very talented..i don't think i'd have the nerve to try this with just me and internet directions..you're my hero!!..i've seen the small silk purses in kits to learn silk painting,but even those intimidated me!

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