Purple Tulips on Blue Background, a Hand-painted Silk Scarf

Blue hand-painted silk scarf with purple tulips

     Newly completed, this 11" x 60" hand-painted silk scarf features purple and purple-variegated tulips on a rich medium blue background. The clear green leaves add even more versatility in terms of coordinating it with various outfits.

     For those of you who are interested, I'll outline the steps of the painting process for this scarf next.

     After some careful study of tulip photos in botanical books and referring to some outline drawings (free for anyone on the Internet), I drew my own outline designs of stands of tulips on heavy paper in the exact size of the intended scarf designs--one for each end of the scarf. Then, using the drawings as a guide, I "drew" onto the scarf with a small squeeze bottle of gutta--not an easy process (see more about gutta below). The blank white scarf is stretched on a frame while I work on it.

Closer detail of one end

Closer detail of the other end

     Once the gutta dried, I painted the first layer of color in the outlines of the leaves and the solid purple tulips. Next came gutta-drawn details inside the outlines (to divide the individual tulip petals and the various leaves from each other). Then I added further layers of color to deepen the tones, shade some areas, and differentiate the details (the French silk dyes I use stay semi-transparent up to 6 or 7 layers of color). The variegated tulips required smaller strokes of color which were then blended out with a water-soaked brush.

A different view of the scarf

     In these photos you see the scarf completed up to that point. The final steps will take several more hours of work. I will wrap this and four other hand-painted scarves in separate layers in heavy newsprint (very carefully to avoid steam-set creases) for an hour or more of deep steaming to set the dyes. 

     Then I'll remove the gutta resist that outlines the design. Gutta (a rubber based resist) protects a design or separates areas from each other, preventing colors from running together. It can only be removed by dry cleaning or (what I do) soaking in a jar with naphtha. Finally, I'll wash the scarves in a special, gentle liquid soap, dry, and press them. Whew--one-of-a-kind, hand-painted silk scarves ready for someone to wear.

Question of the day: There are many styles of blog posts. Mine combine photos and a fair amount of text. Are you a blog visitor who prefers to look at photos quickly and maybe a sentence or two, or do you enjoy more text for the times you are interested in some explanation?

Hand-painted Purple, Yellow, and Green Silk Scarf with Clematis Flowers

     This hand-painted 11" x 60" silk scarf was inspired by the lovely flowers on clematis vines. Of the various varieties in our botanical reference books (oh, the gorgeous photos!), I decided to represent one with six-petal blossoms in shaded purple tones. My silk painting technique, using French-style dyes, does not allow for perfection in reproducing nature exactly; the results are more free-form or impressionistic. But these flowers look more like the photos than some (for example, I used a different approach for an earlier scarf with a loose painting technique; they are not meant to be like any "real" flowers).

     Rather than describe all the details of the process, I'll summarize and readers who want more can follow links to more extensive explanations. To avoid pure white gutta outlines, I painted the entire scarf with pale yellow and yellow-green, wet-on-wet, before any drawing and let the piece dry. Then, with preliminary sketches as a guide to shape and placement, I lightly drew in the flowers and leaves with a water-soluble fabric pencil and then traced the design with gutta resist.

Closer view of design details

     The flowers and leaves took several layers of dye to gradually deepen and vary the shades and tones. I used a permanent fabric marker for the vines and a few other small details.

     Painting on silk is always a discovery process, and I am still learning and growing in the art. This particular scarf turned out well, I think, and I am using a similar approach to create an autumn leaf design. Stay tuned.

Question of the day: For scarf wearers, what sorts of designs do you like best: flowers and other themes from nature, abstract, geometric, or other?

Ocean-Inspired Aqua, Blue, and Purple Hand-painted Silk Scarf

An 11" x 60" one-of-a-kind, hand-painted silk scarf

     This ocean-inspired aqua, blue, and purple hand-painted silk scarf, 11" x 60", was a delight to paint. I used French-
style silk dyes and began with diluted blue and aqua to paint the large middle area in pale shades, blending well. Just as a clear sky shades slightly from a truer blue appearance overhead to a more aqua look nearer the horizon, I used blue in the very center and shaded to aqua further from center. 

     Of course, I was not trying to make a realistic ocean and sky picture, but hoped to suggest them. In the second stage, I used stronger (much less diluted) hues and began to work on the very ends. The mottled areas result from liberal doses of kosher salt--salt draws wet dye up to create random jagged patterns. What is the area meant to represent? you may ask. I had some thoughts, but mostly wanted some variety in the look of the ends of the scarf. People who have seen it each have their own ideas: currents deep down, the ocean bottom, coral, the movement of sea creatures. Take your pick; it's fun to imagine what shape and texture could represent.

Seen from another angle 

     Working up from the ends, I laid in wavy strips of various shades of blue, aqua, and purple, along with some deep rose. I had some of these shades premixed and ready; others resulted from the colors overlapping and mixing on their own or from adding subsequent tones over the first layer of color. 

     When I approached the "sky" area, I used gutta as a resist (more information here) to draw wiggly outlines for a suggestion of currents and waves (click on any photo to enlarge). Once the gutta had dried, I could continue to create undulating watery tones--using gradually lighted versions of the colors. Since French silk dyes are transparent up to seven layers of color, I could add and modify any of the hues until the result felt right.

The earlier silk scarf, made in my class

     When I originally learned the art of silk painting from Donna Kassab at the John C. Campbell Folk School (see posts about the class here), one of my first silk scarf creations (and still a favorite) was a 22" square ocean-inspired piece. That design sparked the long scarf shown in this post. The square piece looks odd in the photo because it had just come off the stretcher on which we paint on silks (it doesn't actually have a scalloped hem). My favorite aspects of French-style silk painting are the intense colors and the element of unpredictability in the process. Every creation feels like a discovery.

Question of the day: What colors and color combinations are your favorites?

Two Hand-painted Silk Scarves

     I have completed two more hand-painted silk scarves, each 22" square, one in shades of turquoise, blue, and purple and the other deep rose with purple and pearl white. Each has been a learning experience, especially the rose colored scarf. Since I have not made many scarves (other scarf posts here). since my class last year, it is still a trial and error process. But, no complaints--I enjoy both what I learn from the errors and the challenge of making things work anyway.

     The blue blend scarf went fairly quickly (not counting the steam setting of the dyes and the chemical removal of the lines of resist). I blended blue and green to a pleasing shade and quickly covered the entire scarf using a wide foam brush--intentionally varying the shading. Once that dried, I used gutta resist to block off a wavy border and a corner feature of tear-drop shapes. The free-form border blend of colors came next (after the gutta had completely dried) followed by filling in the tear drops. Going over some of the areas again deepened the color--or using a different shade, changed the color subtly. Sorry there is no photo of the entire scarf--am in a rush, and it is too wrinkled to look decent laid out flat (how lazy is that?).

     I'll spare you the tortured tale of trial and error on the rose scarf, but again, I started by painting the entire scarf--this time in a rose color blend, both to serve as a background and to ensure that the later gutta outlining would not be stark white. Since it turned out darker than desired, I "lifted" some color with a wide brush filled with water. Then: let it dry, gutta outlines for the leaves and iris flowers, let it dry, paint layers of purple, and several different green shades in the leaves and flowers, and make a narrow purple border. Finally, I made the lily of the valley flowers with Jacquard Luminere pearlescent fabric paint (which comes in small bottles and can be squeezed directly onto fabric from the bottle tip). Keeping a toothpick in the other hand, I quickly pulled the paint up twice each time I made a flower "drop" to form the little pointed petals (as always, click on any photo to enlarge it and see more detail). The alcohol spray spots and little random whats-its on the scarf were attempts to camouflage drops of dye and other oopsies. I also wanted the variation in texture of the alcohol spotting. Overall, not bad. The color is so lovely, it's hard to hate the result.

Question of the day: What would we do without color?