I've been working (ok, playing) with silk scarf painting the last couple of days. See, I'm part of Celtica!, which is a choir that is associated with the Irish Cultural Center in Phoenix, AZ. The ladies in the choir tend to wear all black for performances, but we decided that a touch of color would be a lovely addition. So I volunteered to dye up a batch of matching silk scarves for us. I ordered my supplies through Dharma Trading Company (http://www.dharmatrading.com/), and they came in the mail within a short amount of time. Here's the silk scarves, as they came in the box. This particular batch is 8" x 72", in habotai silk. The first thing I did was pre-wash the scarves, to get any oils or residue off of them that might block the dye. I just tossed them in the wash, twice, with a bit of Dharma's textile detergent. Well, that was a mistake. The tossing them in the wash part--not the detergent. I should have put them in a lingerie bag instead of letting them run loose in the wash. You wouldn't think that silk scarves could knot up into a mass that would take a half hour or so to untie, would you? Well I didn't anyway. I know better now. I had to iron them after that, too, because they were all wrinkled from the knotting. These are my materials, also from Dharma. (Well, I had the sumi brush hanging around left over from art classes.) These dyes will need to be steamed to set the color, which will be a bit of a pain. But I took a class on silk painting a few years back, and this is what the teacher used in her own art work. I stretched the silk onto the frame that I picked up from (yes, you guessed it) Dharma a few years back. I wanted a very fluid, wet-on-wet- watercolor effect, so I lightly sprayed the silk with water. I have four colors of dye that I'm working with. I want the colors fairly evenly scattered over the scarf. I started by laying out squiggles of the dark blue... ...then added the green for the second color... ...then the third color... ...and the fourth. That gave me the underlying movement to the pattern, and made sure the colors were fairly evenly distributed. Then I went back and filled in all the white space. I paid special attention to the edges, to make sure the rolled hem actually took the color. Since I'm not really wanting hard edges in this scarf, I took just water on my brush and scrubbed the color edges, blending them together. Then I scattered salt crystals on the still damp dye... ...and very lightly spritzed the scarf with water to make sure the dye could bleed and blend during the drying process. Why salt? It sucks in the surrounding dye, which makes really cool patterns and textures. This is a watercolor painting trick. After the scarf was dry I brushed up all the salt, and set it aside to use again. The salt is lightly blue now, but as long as I am working on the same color way I'm not too worried about dye transfer. Here's the finished scarf! Well, it is finished with the painting process. Now I need to let it sit for at least 24 hours. Then it will be time to steam the silk to set the dye. 24 hours after that I can wash and iron the scarf and it will be ready for wear. (You can bet that I'll be using the lingerie bag this time around!) I really like the way these turn out. I love the watery, organic patterns that this technique gives. It is a combination of color choice and placement, with a healthy dose of serendipity thrown in with the blending and salt. Each time I make one, I decide part way through that process that this particular scarf is my very very favorite one. This could get to be very addictive! I think once I get this batch done (I'm working up a dozen of them) I want to get some more variety of colors, and make up some for the Etsy shop. Because I don't want to stop playing! You can see the next parts of this project in these two posts: Steaming: http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/03/tutorial-steaming-silk-scarves.html Washing and Ironing: http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/06/washing-and-ironing-hand-painted-silk.html

This list of Silk Painting Techniques continues to grow! As more and more people start… More >>

Handpainted silk scarf with red and blue flowers on a light blue background. The scarf is painted in watercolor technique. The colors create a gentle transition between different shades. I used two types of outlines - gold and black for accents. An artistically painted scarf is a great addition to your wardrobe and an accent to your individual style. The natural silk scarf pleasantly cools in hot weather and gently warms from the wind. Size 130 x 35 cm (51,2 x 13,8 inch) Care instructions: To wash natural silk products dyed using the silk painting technique, you need to carefully, without soaking, in cool water (30 - 40 C) with a delicate detergent or special silk products. After washing, let the water drain. A wet product can be ironed from the left side with a medium-hot iron. With extra gentle care, a painted silk scarf will delight you for many years.

You can see it Larger on my photoblog.

Any of you that paint on silk will be familiar with the alcohol technique. For those of you that don't paint on silk you may be surprised to know that it doesn't mean having a wee dram before starting the project. Alcohol is used to displace the dye to form patterns by painting onto dry unfixed dyed silk. It will only work with dyes, not silk paints, as long as the silk dye has not been fixed. My sequence of pics show the process in stages. 1. After stretching the silk on the frame I painted it using 3 colours of water based dye. I didn't blend the colours, I let them find their own edges. 2. When the dyes have dried I can start to 'paint' using the alcohol. You can see the shapes starting to appear as the dye is pushed to the edges of the brush shape. 3. More alcohol is added. I was going for vague flower shapes. 4. Texture was added to the background by adding spots of alcohol with the tip of the brush. 5. The alcohol will dilute the colour of the dye so more colour can be added if it's starting to look too washed out. I also added more spots. Sometimes it's difficult to know when to stop! 6. The finished piece of silk taken off the frame but before I have fixed the dye. The fixing process is a lengthy steam using an old steamer over a saucepan of simmering water being very careful not to let any water touch the silk. Not sure what I'll use it for yet, it's about 45cm square, any ideas?

A painting of different flowers on a natural silk foulard. Each edge of the scarf is different. The square scarf is painted in watercolor technique. I used a gold outline, black and blue outlines for accents. A unique work of art. A hand-painted scarf will accentuate the unique style and personality of any wearer. An artistically painted scarf is a great addition to your wardrobe and an accent to your individual style. The natural silk scarf pleasantly cools in hot weather and gently warms from the wind. Size 74 x 74 cm (29 x 29 inch). Care instructions: To wash natural silk products dyed using the silk painting technique, you need to carefully, without soaking, in cool water (30 - 40 C) with a delicate detergent or special silk products. After washing, let the water drain. A wet product can be ironed from the left side with a medium-hot iron. With extra gentle care, a painted silk scarf will delight you for many years.

Basic Technique Serti Painting There are many ways to paint on silk. This is one of the most common methods. It is called Serti Technique or painting with a resist called gutta. For more extensive …