Taking Silk Painting Class

I had lots of fun yesterday taking a silk painting class at a local art store. I have tried botanical printing on silk before and have used silk a lot in my pressed flower art but have not tried my hands into silk painting.

Teacher Erica is a professional in unique silk garments, silk accessories, and scarf designs.

What I really like taking this class is that everything was prepared for us. We get to try different products and different techniques. It is always fun learning something new.

Erica showed us about the wooden frame and how to pin the silk fabric onto frame. It is not as complicated as I thought. We used a canvas frame and just thumb nails.

We did not have to worry about stretching at first. Just make sure the pins are down straight and secure. After getting a couple of pins down on two corners, then we started to pay attention to stretching. Secure all 4 corners first. Then 4 middles. Then 1/2 way between all the corners and middles.

There should be a gap between silk fabric and the frame.

We used small Chinese brush for this class.

Then we made a tic-tac toe with resist and made sure all the lines are solid.

Erica asked us to take the resist painted fabric under the sun to dry faster while she talked about what we will do.

We have learned salt method, rain drop method, gradient wash, embellishment. I find it is similar to watercolor but with some differences. Once you make a darker mark on the silk, you can’t really fix it by adding more water. The edges of the color patch will show. All you can do is to add more texture to the design. The left one is mine. The dyes dry quickly under the sun. Then when we get home, we need to iron the piece for color fasting. Then we wash the resist out.

Other students in the same class were also waiting for their paints to dry.

I love this effect. It is too bad that display would not show the shimmring of gold well.

What do I do with the silk painted? I have cut one corner out this morning and spent 10 minutes getting this picture below.

Of course I can do the same color schemes with paper but there is this richness and body that silk has above all the papers. One has to see it in person to appreciate silk.