Walked into my local art store today and a silk painting kit caught my eye. Never seen it before. Apparently you can paint on silk. This means that YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN SILK SCARVES!!!! I am obsessed with vintage silk scarves so this revelation was a HUGE one for me. Like, WOW. Of course, at $30 plus the cost of the silk I didn’t buy the set…yet. I took it to the internet instead. Here’s what I found out:
The process involves a special kind of paint that brilliant yet pliable and doesn’t mess with the flow of the silk. It’s also washable.
Step #1 - You stretch the silk out on a stretcher (looks like I could rig one up with an empy window frame/picture frame and some thumbtacks) and then put your resist on the silk. There are several techniques for this and they all produce different results (exciting!). Looks like you can use wax but there are other techniques too - lots of them - involving salt and alcohol and something called dutta.
Step #2 - Paint it with special silk-painting paints.
Step #3 - Let the paint dry and the steam the silk to set the paint
Here’s a couple examples to get those creative juices flowing…..
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- Silk throw by Claudia Fluegge
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- Handpainted Scarves by Ellen Spring of the Vermont Crafts Council
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- Amazing hand painted leaf scarf by Vivian Polack
More beautiful examples here, here and here.
Oooooo I so want to try this!! Has anyone else given silk painting a go? How was your first go-round?
