Silk Painting Progress

::: Silk Painting Progress :::

Yesterday I made more progress on the Iris silk painting that I am working on for school. I think that I am just about done fiddling with the painting part of the project. The next step will be to steam the painting to set the dye.

Summer Projects!

This has been a busy summer, as usual. I've been sewing for customers, doing an internship, finishing up school projects, and throwing parties!

I threw a Baby Shower at our apartment two weeks ago for a friend who will be having a baby girl any day now. Above you can see a picture of the dining room all decked out for the party. Complete with pink polka dot curtains to go with the theme.

I've been working with a beautiful royal blue silk taffeta to make an 1850s Basque dress for a customer in Lancaster, PA. It's coming together quite nicely so far.

And, I've been working on a silk painting project! This project is my favorite. I thought that it was going to be much more challenging, but selecting a design that lent itself well to this media helped a great deal. Originally I wanted to silk paint an Alphonse Mucha image - that would have been very tedious to silk paint. This image of Iris flowers is much more organic and lends itself to the freedom of silk painting.

Here the silk is stretched on a wooden frame, push pinned in place, and the image transfered to the silk first with pencil or disappearing ink and then with gutta. I am using a water-based gutta that can be washed out after the painting is steamed when finished to set the dye. A gutta that is not water based would have to be dry cleaned out. I'll post more pictures as the process continues!

Screen Printing

Screen Printing Thus Far...

I'm 1/2 way done with my Screen Printing project for Fabric Painting Class! The assignment was the screen print two yards of cotton. This screen was burnt using the photo emulsion process. The fabric was white cotton that I dyed turquoise blue. The paint is Speedball Screen Printing Ink for Fabric. The second part of the assignment is to use a screen made using Screen Filler. I'm still putting the finishing touches on that screen. Then I will print that design over the 2 yards of fabric in black pearly paint - it will consist of a design in the blank spaces between the gold designs. Hopefully it will turn out well!