Hand-painted Tropical Leaf Silk Scarf with Varied Greens on Blue Background

Tropical Leaf Silk Scarf in Varied Greens on Blue Background

     The idea of painting a design of tropical leaves on a silk scarf has been in the back of my mind for awhile. Recently, I completed this 60" x 11" scarf in blue and varied green hues after a number of sketches finally resulted in a design I liked. I blended several shades and hues of green for the leaves, because I wanted to make the scarf more useful, more likely to look nice with different outfits. The leaf designs were inspired by photos of plants in some of my husband's botanical books and from direct observation of plants in our coastal north Florida neighborhoods.

One end of tropical leaf scarf

     I don't know why I draped the scarf on this old couch for its photos, but have decided it doesn't look too bad there. The final steps to finish the work-- steam-setting the dyes, removing the gutta outlines in a naphtha soak, washing and pressing--are not yet done. However, I thought you might like a look at it anyway.

Other end of tropical leaf scarf

     All the colors, including the blue background, are blends of liquid French silk dyes. I love experimenting with colors and color combinations and am rarely disappointed with the results of the blends I've planned--although it can take some "tinkering" to get the shade where I want it. 

     I painted a very light, watered-down blue on the entire white scarf blank first, then outlined all the leaves and stems with gutta resist (more information on using gutta in the third paragraph of this post). That way, the outlines have some color, rather than just being white. The lighter leaves are a pale green painted over with yellow (which tends to push other colors away and creates a nice variegation in hues). The large philodendron leaf is several layers of olive. The smaller vine leaves are a blend of greens, again layered until the depth of color seemed right. The heart-shaped larger vine leaves are a blend of green and blue. I gave each of the leaves one coat before "drawing" the veins with gutta resist; that way the veins would have more color, rather than just retaining the light blue of the first coat of the background. Last, I finished the final coat or two of the blue background, randomly stroking a true blue over aqua, then blending them for a watery, varied appearance. Now this will join a couple of other scarves in the studio closet until I have enough for a steamer batch to set the dyes.

Question of the Day: What sort of scarf design would you like me to try next?