An example of using Steam fix dyes and a gutta resist
Devore on satin and double dyeing.
Adding gold and bronze gutta
I first came across Silk Painting in 1984 at the Living Crafts Fair held at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, close to where I live. I was fascinated and bought a small kit – which promptly got buried beneath all my other painting paraphernalia. As my children were growing up I bought some fabrics paints and some of those puff paints to decorate Tee shirts and anything else we thought would be fun. I also remember doing some machine embroidery of a budlea flower head, stem and leaves which I then painted it was a great success and stitched onto a Tee shirt it looked great.
We bought fabric paint pens and my daughter was given small silk painting kit for her birthday one year, both of which she and I had great fun using. The little kit I had bought a couple of years previously came to light and I did a painting of a Welsh Dragon in various shades of green and yellow and I think there was some pink somewhere. They were iron fix paints and very easy to use. Unfortunately although the dragon was very decorative he was also very static. He was eventually mounted and framed and given to my sister who collected dragons. I have since done a couple of other dragons one completely mythical and the other very much a chinese dragon – gold on a shaded red background both mounted and framed.
Following my initial dabbling with the silk paints I wanted to learn more about silk painting and discovered The Guild of Silk Painters, which I joined and found that there was a group in St Albans. I went along to their monthly meetings and was made very welcome and soon discovered that they were all willing to share their knowledge and encouraged those of us less versed in the art of silk painting to have a go. We did occasional workshops and a project to complete each month. Quite challenging for a beginner.
I bought some steam fix dyes which gave a wonderful luminescence to the finished piece once it had been fixed by steam. Tessa Barnes, the leader of the Group, gave me a saucepan to use to steam my silk in. For me it was a case of trial and error as there seem to be differing opinions on how long one should steam the silk for in order to set the dye.
There are some very good books on the subject and I bought one which appealed and took me down the path of how to create pictures, but designs suitable for cushions, and scarves. There are numerous techniques to be mastered including using a resists such as gutta to prevent the dye going where you don’t want it, applying wax to give a completely different effect and of course its another type of resist.
We made pictures, scarves and of course cards and bookmarks and these were exhibited at our first exhibition in St Albans. The standard of work was extremely high and I felt I need to know much more. I found another Group in Cambridge that met on a Sunday morning and did various workshops throughout the year. Again extremely friendly and so helpful.
One of the techniques I really enjoyed was faux shibori using the microwave. I will never forget my first efforts as the results were stunning. I embellished one or two with surface decoration. Another technique I found really exciting was double dying devore. You put two colours into the pot at the same time immersed the devore scarf usually silk velvet into boiling water for quite some time and the result was amazing.
I made and sold lots of scarves quite often I would get a phone call asking me to produce one for a present for a friend or family member.
Eventually I decided I would do the City & Guilds Silk Painting course and this took me down other routes of silk painting. There is so much to discover about the subject and fortunately there are numerous books and a wonderful web site run by The Guild of Silk Painters, an organization that is world wide. The UK Guild run a Festival every year with each branch taking it in turns to host the event and provide displays of work and demonstrations as well as workshops. The Guild also takes a stand each year at The Knitting & Stitching Show in both London and Harrogate and volunteers of the Guild man the stall and provide demonstrations and have-a-go sessions.
There are a number of manufacturers of both iron and steam fix silk paints and dyes and a search of the web will highlight where these can be bought. However, I have used Rainbow Silks who have an online mail order facility and also Art Van Go, who are based in Knebworth Hertfordshire. Both offer courses and workshops for silk painters. There are of course numerous other stores that you can purchase silk paints and silk dyes from, together with brushes and silk by the meter and silk that has a design already guttaed ready for you to paint. The Guild of Silk Painters web site also gives details of courses and workshops as well as holidays at home and abroad, plus galleries showing the work of its members and much much more. The links are as follows
The Guild of Silk Painters - http://www.silkpaintersguild.org/
Rainbow Silks http://www.rainbowsilks.co.uk/
Art Van Go - http://www.artvango.co.uk/index.html
There is so much more I could say but I feel you need to try this for yourself and am sure you will enjoy the experience of taking a piece of silk and turning it into a work of art. It is very addictive.
