I have spent months practicing painting on silk, and FINALLY I am getting somewhere. Silk is sooo tempermental, as the colors wish and wash all over the place….arg! But I have discovered a few products and techniques that help. But most of all it takes practice…arg again! PLUS, I am using real fiber dyes (not paints) which need to be steam set for a looong time.
And heres the painting, before the stove top steaming. Ignore the blue, I was playing around with the colors. I am in love with the shimmer of silk! My new canvas!
Its sooo cool becasue the dyes “become one” with the silk during steaming, and the art seeps through the silk, so its on both sides! I’m holding her up to the light, you can see its rays shining through.
so after painting, I roll her in newsprint… carefully!!
Fingers crossed as I steam set the dyes in this nifty pan that goes over two burners…I saved myself $800.00 by discovering a fish poaching pan (the upright silk steamer costs this much!) But now I’m limited on the size of the silk piece that I can steam. For now, oh well.
Scrub-a-dubb…It worked! A few weird dye spots here and there…but ok. Now I wash the piece, and then iron. Now to experiment with the stitching.
I’m going to do some paintings stitched, some not. No promises on this one, but hopefully I’ll post her when shes done!