Sunday 11 October 2009

Green Vine Scarf

Today, apart from finishing the catches on a couple of necklaces, I decided to do some silk painting. I am hoping to do quite a few scarves as presents this year. My Greta Aunt and Grandma normally get jewellery but I thought a change might be nice so this year they will get scarves. I also want to do a scarf for each of my close family.

I recently bought a book on silk painting and this has really helped. I have discovered that the best way to get smooth blending is to paint on wet silk. I also bought a few more tools and dyes and things. I still really need a frame though. Having the silk on the wall means the dye and water can gloop behind the silk and stick it to the wall. This effects the eveness of colour.

My Great Aunt likes all things green. I began by watering down some turquoise and painting the entire scarf. I then found a vine pattern I liked and copied the core pattern and blew it up. I then copied it onto the scarf using clear gesso. I then painted over it all with two shades of green in both diluted and neat form. The pattern has been preserved in turquoise and is lovely and subtle. I think this scarf looks a lot better than my previous efforts, despite being so simple... Wet silk is definitely easier to paint!

2 comments:

  1. It looks gorgeous rose... i've never tried silk painting but i always admire the effects... and i love the feel of silk it's so... silky, lol can't think of a better word!

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  2. Thanks Suzi! I really love silk. I think it helped in the beginning that I had no idea what I was doing, because I had no idea what I needed. I have slowly worked up my number of paints and other things. I think aside from a double boiler for getting into wax and a frame, I am over the hump money wise. You don't need a lot to paint silk but the others things help. My previous scarves felt like dabbling but this one feels like a much more accomplished endeavour. With your sense of colour and space, i would love to see what you would create on silk...

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