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

A cabin in the snow! The art studio journey continues.

So here we are at the end of February 2015 and the "cold winter" predictions have come true!

Just one of a number  this winter!

Last winter collage and our cabin before renovations!

New England continues to dig out from yet another snowstorm...I think I read 7 feet of snow in 4 storms in 1 month! And we wait for a new system to come in tonight-one in which NO one seems to know what will happen (ice, sleet, little snow, lots of 
snow?)





We have purposefully kept our large art studio cooler since we don't want to burn through too much propane. That means I can move a lot of my silk work inside the house to my office. 

There is a definite space advantage after the kids leave home!

IN my next post I'll share some of the silk projects I am doing but right now here are a few of the images of the progress we are making with our "Cabin in the Woods" which will actually be a smaller studio but still a cabin feel to it!

Enjoy our DIY efforts!

My artist hubby working late at night (with the help of a portable heater)

The mudding of the sheetrock is now DONE!

Painting on silk scarves and silk!

A detour journey for a portrait artist into the textile world of silk is not as extreme as it may sound. I mean it is still drawing and painting after all.  I am stretching silk-I stretch canvas. I am playing with colors to see what works and what does not-that never really changes. Even after years of painting portraits where by now I obviously  have my favorite combinations of skin tone colors, sky colors, etc, that is still subject to change! (I do have to watch my tendency to drift towards portraiture in silk painting though.) 

What I AM certain of is that as I do more, I am liking my newer silk paintings ones more than my first ones! And I am also wanting to expand from the confines of a scarf (8 x 54, 8 x 72, 14 x 72, etc) into...I don't know squares and such. So having said all that, below are a few of the more recent examples along with some images of my high tech PVC stretching frame that my husband and I put together! 

From earlier post. Painting horses

background colors added, salt sprinkled

I am still out on sprinkling salt on the background for a starburst effect-it has not happened quite like I thought it would (as watercolor paper would react) so having tried it on 2 different dyes...well, we will see!

Onward:

Horses added after I dyed the colors

closeup of embellishments

All of these are on the stretcher bars. The next blog will show the PVC frame and larger scarves. (these are 8" x 54").

On the Model!