Silk screening on silk techniques

Silk screening is one of those things that bypassed me in college. I don't know why or how exactly. I can etch on zinc plates covered with asphaltum  and sunk into acid baths. I can pick up a linoluem block and hand carve it to print on. But I never learned to use a silk screen.
Then of course everything changed with the computer and silk screen seemed to be going the way of the dark room for photographers.....but oh my, now I've had a taste of it!

So with just the barest of equipment I have begun to screen on my silk scarves. It is the layering that really attracts me! Just like my layers in my abstract paintings, I can form layers on the silk.

Once I figured out how to burn an original image onto a transparency (courtesy of a friend and my hubby !) I saw the possibilities open up!


The collage is from a day with a girlfriend who has done this awhile.
The photos below it are the scarves I just completed using the method. Enjoy the beautifully colored layers! Some were done with Lumiere dye that adds a cool shimmer to the colors.

adding layers on already dyed scarf and my friend cleaning a film

My teal layers

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Eggplant with dragonflies

Abstract flower layers

My abstract horses

Silk Play Date

So what happens when you get three women together who like to silk paint? We had a Silk Play Date!  We met recently on a freezing day at one friend's house planning to work with some screen transparencies. But our initial plan of letting the sun do the work was quickly forgotten in the 36 degree outside temperatures. But our friend, a long time silk artist, had a clever, homemade light "box" set up for processing transparencies to print onto our silk :-)

The collage below says it all! The long scarf is one where I had already dyed the background a variety of colors...the closeup shows the screening of the vine design I added as another layer to it. I could get used to play dates!

Inspiration in creating your own designs

Creating your own designs

Adding my designs to a silk/wool blend shawl

I have always carved. Mainly wood and even earlier-block prints on linoleum blocks. Both are time consuming and labor intensive-not problem normally to an artist but sometimes I just don't have the patience!
So with a "softer than linoleum" product on the market (for years apparently!) by Speedball, I started carving my own stamps to use on my scarves. To say it was fun was an understatement-it went fast, I was impressed and most of all I was enthused! My own designs-not mass produced ones from the craft stores....what's not to love? :-)

Using Speedball tools to carve away my design

A few carved in just a day (and used!)

I realize with the exception of the heart, these are all horses but that's where my passion lies when I am trying new ideas. Plenty of time to come up with other designs as I become more proficient!

Using the stamps with textile paint was a blast! I have a new batch of scarves to play with so I can't wait to try them but in the meantime I have two collages of what I worked on so far!

Our frigid temperatures have kept me off the hiking trails until today but the cold is coming back around and I'll be ready!

Prototypes!

 

 

 

 

Overlapping the design in layers

The art of creating!

Some images of just a few of October's artwork!

Some of the silk work and the volunteer stick horses (amazingly time consuming!)

Creating my artwork in all its various forms from portraits to abstracts to silk art to stick horses (a volunteer fundraiser project) has left little room for putting things back where they belong and on my list today are the deceptively simple words "clean studio."

It sounds so simple to just put back the art supplies, yet in the midst of creating and running out the door, everything gets moved around, set down randomly, put in and out of car, not empty trash cans, clean up messes, and not return items to their designated spots....multiply that by the 27 straight days of shows that we have also been doing and those two little words become a HUGE item on a long list! So crossing off just this one thing on my list can be an all day event and I have just two days before the shows begin again!


Both Steve and I paint a lot at the shows while we are there but once back at the studio, I personally need an uncluttered space to recharge and be productive! 


So without any more procrastination....off the computer and into the studio to tackle...well at least my half!

Maybe I'll post a photo of "after!"

Colors of Inspiration

Why do we use certain colors? What attracts us to yellows or blues or pinks? Why do we react well with some colors and not with others?
I opened the doors to my studio this morning and walked out with coffee in one hand and a recently completed silk painting in the other.  I paused to revel in the unusually cool morning and admire the colors of dawn. Reds, oranges, yellows and cerulean blue against a backdrop of greens in every hue. The cooler summer has kept the shades of greens vivid this year rather than showing the browns that come by the end of the hot days. 
And then I realized that the silk scarf I was holding in my hands encompassed the colors of all that I was seeing. And I knew then where much of my inspiration was coming from. From within my subconscious came my color palette because it was not until I stepped out of the studio did I realize how the colors around me had influenced my paintings on silk. And that's a good place to be :-)

The colors of morning

the colors of Inspiration

Silk Painting explored

The fun of an Artsy Journey is just that: it's fun! For the past few months I've enjoyed various forms of silk painting with more or less a YouTube education. That in itself is another story, but I have played with some pretty basic tools to the more traditional dyes used by the professionals and have just scratched the surface. I think I know now,  how my painting students who come to me and say "I know nothing about painting" feel. :-)

Special markers on white silk scarves

So anyway I've played with resists, different dyes, washing, ironing...wow more work than a portrait!  You never know what I'll create next-keep watching!

Dyed with abstracts drawn by hand onto the scarf

Stretched, silver resist and hand drawn and painted

Same horses but with background dye added and silk salt for texture

Silk scarf embellished