Tag Archives: silk painting techniques

Care of Silk, Uncategorized, Washing Silk

Great Post on Taking Care of Silks

This is from Melissa at Tangible Dreams

Washing and Ironing Hand Painted Silk Scarves

I was busy today doing the washing and the ironing. Sounds awfully domestic, doesn’t it? Except, what I was doing was the finishing work on the batch of hand painted silk scarves that I’ve been working on. They’ve been pre-washed, then dyed, then steamed. One last bit of work, and they are all set to go.

When the scarves come out of the steamer, they are kind of cracky-crinkly (Yes, that is the technical term. At least it is now.), and still have bits of salt on them. They’re pretty, but don’t have that lovely flowing and shining texture that you expect from silk.

So, the next step is to wash the scarves. I put them into lingerie bags to keep them from tangling too badly in the wash. (I learned that one the hard way.) I don’t put more than 3 or 4 scarves in a bag, and try to put like colors together on the off chance that the dyes run into each other.

This stuff helps keep the excess dyes from transferring to the silk. You can also use Synthropol. I put in about 1/4 cup for the wash load. The washer is on hot, and is set to the delicate cycle.

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Experimental Techniques, No Gutta Lines, Resist, Silk Painting Techniques

Sodium Alginate (sea weed) Can be Used as a Resist and Dye Thickner

sodium alginate as a water-based resist
by jeanne morrison

June 13, 2009 in 1 | Tags: , 

in recent posts (the prior two i think) i experimented to find a cheap water-based resist for silk painting. you can get little tubes or bottles of proprietary resist from the dye houses, but they’re way fucking expensive, and i’ll be damned if i’m going to be held hostage to somebody’s formula. grrr.

so i thought about it, and looked it up, and found recipes for rice starch paste and other things that i didn’t like the look of. and i cast my eye on my little unused bag of sodium alginate. i had it because all the books said to have it. to thicken the dye. but in silk painting you want watery dyes. thick dyes are for like painting dye directly on cotton fabrics. for silk you use a resist line.

of course, this is mere tradition. you can use what you like on what you like. that’s art. the question is rather of the integrity of your materials. how long will your work last is more important than what brand of paint you used.      read more…

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Categories : Resist, Sodium Alaginate

Salt Technique, Silk Painters, Silk Painting Techniques, Techniques

Himalayan Salt is Huge!

Since we have been talking about salt on SPIN page of facebook….I wanted to share something one of the students on the Online Silk Painting Class .  Edith Jessica Cole tried Himalayan Salt wow this is huge and I have never seen anything like this. I am always amazed and learning. Love the sharing. I have not tried this salt myself yet but thought you might enjoy seeing it.