Silk
I love silk … it feels like whisper soft elegant luxurious angel wings against my skin.
Silk painting sounds exotic and full of mystery and speaks to my soul of foreign lands full of tropical flowers, torrid humid heat & street markets full of vendors.
Truth be told … silk painting is the process of applying fabric dyes or fabric paints to silk fabric. There are marvelous silk painters who live in exotic or foreign to me lands though … i.e.:
| Costa Rica Silks | Silk Scarves Colorado | Muse Silk Paintings |
16.5 mm Stone Washed Crepe-de-Chine Silk
I started painting silk scarves when I lived in the Houston, TX area … then I moved to a foreign to me land 
… South Dakota in November 2010.
Very few palm trees in SD … … but there are palm tree motifs on products here too … table cloths, rugs, curtains, a mural on a building wall across town.
Palm trees are lovely graceful creatures that remind us of warm weather, sunbathing, sand between our toes and vacations away from the office or winter weather. That is why I paint whimsical palm trees on silk, paper or canvas.
The 16.5 mm Stone Washed Crepe-de-Chine Silk pictured here is lovely … but it crumples and looks wrinkled & sad when worn so I do not use it for my silk scarves. I use summer weight 8mm Habotai China Silk – light & airy – looks great worn or winter weight 19.5mm Silk Charmeuse – luxuriously soft & comfy – looks great worn.
19.5 mm Silk Charmeuse Scarf
Did you know that silk is a warm fabric to wear in chilly or cold weather while also keeping you cool in warm or hot weather? Silk (Wikipedia) and I quote
“Silk’s absorbency makes it comfortable to wear in warm weather and while active. Its low conductivity keeps warm air close to the skin during cold weather.”
Choosing what paints and/or dyes that I wanted to work with was the most difficult decision for me … I researched my options for months. I am NOT using a frame nor tacking the scarf material down with tacks or pins to paint on it … I look forward to those “spreading stain” moments.
Here is a great summary of the available choices for silk painting from Dharma Trading – I chose #4 to start since I was doing this completely on my own & learning as I went and I quote
“Type 4. Instant-Set Pigment Silk Dye – just dilute, paint on and air dry for 12-24 hours. No fixatives, steaming or heatsetting required! Like a hybrid between a dye and a paint – Leaves a slight testure on the silk and a softer color than the Type 3 paints.”
I am a customer of Dharma Trading but no one is paying me or gifting me anything to tell you this is where I buy many of my silk painting art supplies.
Washing / Drying – I recommend hand washing in cold water & very mild soap then air drying. They can be ironed on a silk setting. I have put mine in the dryer on delicate fluff dry but it will wear them out much quicker.