A luxurious project
May. 18th, 2004 02:00 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
mamallama.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
craftgrrlWanna see what I've been doing all day?
Silk painting! (Technically, I'm using dye, but it's like using watercolors.)
All I need is a convertible and some classy shades and I can Thelma and Louise on outta here!
If you have any luck with watercolors, you might like silk painting. This is a fun and easy and not-too-expensive project that I'm doing with my 8th graders. I got all my supplies from Dharma Trading (I love them!!!) and probably spent around $60 for all the supplies to do this with the class (each student is making a 11" square hankie.) Stretchers are expensive so I'm using old picture frames I've bummed off people and bought at yard sales, with rubber bands and lingerie clothespins to hold the scarves taut.
I like the Jacquard Silk Dyes (I used magenta, turquoise, yellow, and black) and on the rainbow I used Jacquard Water-soluable resist (gutta).
Here's how you do it:
1. Wash silk items to be painted/dyed. This really is an important step because there are chemicals used in the process of making silk that sometimes act weird with the dye. You never know until your project is already ruined.
2. When fabric is completely dry, draw the design on with the resist, using a tiny squeeze bottle with a drawing tip (available at the website.) IMPORTANT: Make sure there are no gaps in your lines or the colors will bleed. Also, make sure to continue all lines around rolled/hemmed edges to prevent colors from traveling up the rolls. (I did not use resist on the big scarf -- I just let the colors go where they wanted to go.)
3. When resist is completely dry (it takes a while -- plenty of time to check for gaps that dye could bleed through) you can begin painting. I like to mix my colors in ice-cube trays. You really don't need much dye to paint an entire scarf. Really, you just get a drop on the brush and touch it to the silk -- it will spread like watercolors on wet paper.
4. After it sits for 24 hours, rinse the scarf in Dharma's Dye Fixative mixed with warm water. It says on the site not to use the Fixative with the water-soluable resist, but I've had no trouble with it. It's supposed to get gummy and hard to remove, but unless you're doing something really huge with a really intricate design, this is really not a problem.
5. I don't have much experience with this, but I would assume you would need to dry clean or at least handwash silk items.
Silk painting! (Technically, I'm using dye, but it's like using watercolors.)
All I need is a convertible and some classy shades and I can Thelma and Louise on outta here!
If you have any luck with watercolors, you might like silk painting. This is a fun and easy and not-too-expensive project that I'm doing with my 8th graders. I got all my supplies from Dharma Trading (I love them!!!) and probably spent around $60 for all the supplies to do this with the class (each student is making a 11" square hankie.) Stretchers are expensive so I'm using old picture frames I've bummed off people and bought at yard sales, with rubber bands and lingerie clothespins to hold the scarves taut.
I like the Jacquard Silk Dyes (I used magenta, turquoise, yellow, and black) and on the rainbow I used Jacquard Water-soluable resist (gutta).
Here's how you do it:
1. Wash silk items to be painted/dyed. This really is an important step because there are chemicals used in the process of making silk that sometimes act weird with the dye. You never know until your project is already ruined.
2. When fabric is completely dry, draw the design on with the resist, using a tiny squeeze bottle with a drawing tip (available at the website.) IMPORTANT: Make sure there are no gaps in your lines or the colors will bleed. Also, make sure to continue all lines around rolled/hemmed edges to prevent colors from traveling up the rolls. (I did not use resist on the big scarf -- I just let the colors go where they wanted to go.)
3. When resist is completely dry (it takes a while -- plenty of time to check for gaps that dye could bleed through) you can begin painting. I like to mix my colors in ice-cube trays. You really don't need much dye to paint an entire scarf. Really, you just get a drop on the brush and touch it to the silk -- it will spread like watercolors on wet paper.
4. After it sits for 24 hours, rinse the scarf in Dharma's Dye Fixative mixed with warm water. It says on the site not to use the Fixative with the water-soluable resist, but I've had no trouble with it. It's supposed to get gummy and hard to remove, but unless you're doing something really huge with a really intricate design, this is really not a problem.
5. I don't have much experience with this, but I would assume you would need to dry clean or at least handwash silk items.
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