Wrapping up the Project Week

Finished Objects on Friday, one knit and one painted.  Linking up with Tami at Finished Objects Friday.
And linking to Fiber Arts Friday.

Elowen Shawl pattern found here

purl bump pattern

The pattern gave me a bit of trouble at first.  But it ended up being a generous size (59" x 24") and the colors go well with denim and grey.

And then a completed silk painting that took the Frame Depot longer to matte and frame than it took me to paint.  But they did a great job after lots of discussion on how to stretch the fabric without tearing the edges.  The technique Mr. Framer used was called "sinked" as it was stretched over foam board with another layer of foam board cut around the stretched silk, then matted and glass covering it and a frame edging cut to size and attached. I could not get a straight picture with the matte looking other than whoppy-jawed, so just did a close up of the silk.

Matted and framed with non-glare glass; dimensions 39" x 31"

This will go over our fire place after Christmas.

Did you finish any projects this week?  One project we still need to complete today is cleaning off the gunk on the top of the ceiling fan blades.  Would Tami allow me to show a picture of the dust before I get up on the ladder to clean and then after?  Think not.  But go visit her blog to see others' finished objects on Friday. And be sure to look at Fiber Arts Friday where there is lots of alpaca going on.

 

Silk Painting: Poppies

A few hours to make the correctly sized frame to hold the fabric taut, two weeks to paint, a bit of a mess in the kitchen, two hours to steam the painting, and meticulous ironing of the silk resulted in this painting:

Dimensions: 33" X 22"

Close up of the flower in left upper corner

I am pleased with the results and learned more about using the gutta resist. This will go to our local frame shop (today?) to be protected by some sort of plastic overlay.

Thanks to the husband for finding the wood for the frame and for putting up with me in the kitchen while completing this project.  He still managed to make some wonderful meals while working around the paints on the counter tops.

Prior posts on my silk paintings can be found here and here.

Today is a Bizarre Day

actually, it is Bazaar Day at our church

My bazaar contribution is a pair of framed floral paintings with information about silk painting provided.

linking to Paint Party Friday

Background

Silk painting originated in China going back to 2600 BC. Long before paper was invented/made, silk was a medium on which to paint. Silk was durable, portable, and readily rolled for travel.

Silk was chosen as an artistic surface not only because of its soft, luxurious feel, but also for its practicality. Silk is light, easy to cut into any desired shape and size and is convenient to carry. Chinese artisans prepared the silk for painting by beating it on a stone slab until the surface became very smooth. After the silk was prepared, the color pigments or ink tones were applied slowly and carefully.

The Process

A resist product similar to glue was applied, dried, and then Jacquard silk paints were used to created these floral pictures. Both paintbrushes and rags were used to blend colors. Paints were allowed to air dry thoroughly. The silk paintings were then rolled in newsprint, coiled into a snake, set in a pressure cooker over hot water and steamed for three hours. After steaming, the paintings were dried and stretched over canvas and stapled to the frame. Backs of the frames were then applied, finished with stock paper.

Come to the Bazaar! Spend your money!  (American Lutheran needs to pay off its building fund.)

Church Banners for Ordinary Times

We Christians are in the midst of a long liturgical season called "Ordinary Time".  It has an associated color: green.  All colors and their associated seasons can be found at the ELCA link.

And from the Lutheran Missouri Synod:

Green is the appointed color for all but a few of the Sundays during these seasons. Consequently, green may be used an average of six to eight months of any given liturgical year!...Variety and change in shades of this color would go a long way in keeping the season fresh and "green." Changing the paraments every six weeks would complement the Sundays following Pentecost and their emphasis on personal faith that is living and growing.

Our church is sprucing up its sanctuary and adding color.  We are displaying rectangles and squares in varying large sizes, along with other appropriate paraments to bring a focal point to one large wall area.

Hopefully, these two pictures on 12 mm silk will be used as decoration to cover one or two of the nine foam boards.  Once all are hung, I will update this post and show the completed wall decorations.

Picture one: 25" x 36" unframed:

Picture 2: 24" x 24"

PPF submission

More to come!

Frog's a Jumpin'

...on silk

Dimensions finished: 16" x 20" under glass; mat size opening: 10.5" x 13.5"

I finally completed a frog painted on  8 mm silk with colors that blended correctly.  It was set with steam for three hours on top of the stove, then ironed and matted and placed in a purchased frame under glass.

Close up of Mr. Frog who is about 11" in length

This was one I painted a few weeks ago on thinner silk, using basically the same line drawing, but with less dye, and transparent gutta, making a softer effect:

Minnemie first painted a frog on lily pads in watercolors.  She was kind enough to let me take inspiration from her art.  I loved the way she made the colors flow, and thought it would make up well in silk. (please do make a visit to her blog as she shows her wonderful watercolors here on her blog).  Minnemie also quotes nice verse along with her painting.  You will enjoy her musings.

National Poetry Month and a Creative Challenge

On Inspiration Avenue, and in conjunction with National Poetry Month, we have a weekly challenge.

April is National Poetry Month and in honor of that... a challenge to revolve around poetry, but also include other forms of the written word, a favorite quote, or novel, or perhaps merely a special word. What inspires you, and how does it make you feel? Pour out those feelings artistically! Whether in oils, collage, watercolor, mixed media, photography, digital art... anything goes, just express it!

Iris are fun to paint, and inspire me.  So I decided to find a poem about iris and then paint one or two.  Here is a poem about iris written by Edith Buckner Edwards in 1961:

Iris, most beautiful flower,
Symbol of life, love, and light;
Found by the brook, and the meadow,
Or lofty, on arable height.
You come in such glorious colors,
In hues, the rainbow surpass;
The chart of color portrays you,
In petal, or veins, of your class.
You bloom with the first in Winter,
With the last, in the Fall, you still show;
You steal the full beauty of Springtime,
With your fragrance and sharp color glow.
Your form and beauty of flower,
An artist's desire of full worth;
So Iris, we love you and crown you,
MOST BEAUTIFUL FLOWER ON EARTH!

Inspired by iris, I got out the silk paints and spread them and all the paraphenalia that goes along with painting on silk, and began this painting with iris as the theme.  It took about a week to complete.  It is ready to frame in a convenient size of 16" x 20".  This is my answer to the Inspiration Avenue weekly challenge.

Jacquard Silk Paints

They arrived, the silk paints, that is.

Their colors are varied and the maker numbers are 721, 745, 701, 722, 712, 730, 715, and 735 in addition to the 11 year old colors (number 717, 732, 706 and 701) that are just becoming depleted.  Love the vibrancy.

Works in progress that needed extra colors are this

and this

Finished works tomorrow?

Reupholstering Dining Room Chairs with Painted Silk

Supplies Needed to Reupholster Six Dining Room Chairs:

Silk Paints (Jacquard Brand), water based resist (note to self: purchase heavier gutta next time) and six yards of12 mm raw silk (only available on line): slubby and heaviest available.  The silk was ordered from Dharma Trading for about $6/yd.  Wash the fabric and dry in dryer on medium heat.  The product says there is an 11 percent shrinkage fabric on this silk.  This is correct!

Process: silk fabric was cut larger than the chair seat and a large canvas frame was turned over and re-purposed for stretching the silk canvas. A heavy staple gun was used to attach the fabric to the back of the canvas frame...the staples are easily removed after the project is completed.

Resist was applied and painting started.  Note: Allow paints to dry thoroughly and then steam following the technique using newsprint for wrapping and steaming (three hours).  I used this tutorial from Dharma.  Newsprint was purchased from the local art supply store.

As a learning experience, I used two types of silk fabric paint.  One product for painting on silk must be steam set for three hours to set the dyes.  The advantage of this type dye is that it allows colors to flow into one another and results in greater control of the colors.

These are a couple of pictures using this steam set type silk dye and paint brushes with the too-thin resist that spread much too freely, creating large areas that were barriers (resists) to the liquid paints.

Finished piece of painted 12mm thickness of silk before the steaming process:

This is the finished silk painting on the seat of one of the dining room chair cushions: steamed, dried, cut and stapled onto the bottom of the seat cushion:

The second type of silk dye is set by heat only (simply pressing on the back of the painted fabric with an iron set to the silk setting). This type of paint is thick and requires a $13 bottle of formaldehyde based thinner which some painters might not desire because of the associated negative environmental factors.

 

The above picture shows the same type resist was used (I was too frugal to purchase another gutta for the second chair cushion and wanted to start the second cushion while the first one was drying).  The paint is the heat set type product, with little room for blending colors.  Instead, the colors were applied one on top of the other.

Finished but not yet applied to the chair cushion: (note that the background is the natural color of the silk fabric):

Completed chair cushion with poppy motif:

Four more chair cushions to complete.  I will continue using the dyes requiring the steam method.  These cushions will NOT be matchy-matchy.  For people with OCD, this might make you squirmy, but it is OK in this household.

Update on 2/16/12, third chair cushion finished:

Update on 2/18/12, fourth cover completed with heat set dyes and little blending allowed:

5th chair cover:

Last one...a bird of paradise.  Who wants to sit on the bird of happiness?

Painting on Silk

Silk painting originated in China, going back to 2600 BC. Long before paper was invented/made, silk was a medium on which to paint. Silk is durable, portable, and readily rolled for travel.  From this site:

Silk was chosen as an artistic surface not only because of its soft, luxurious feel, but also for its practicality. Silk is light, easy to cut into any desired shape and size and is convenient to carry. Chinese artisans prepared the silk for painting by beating it on a stone slab until the surface became very smooth. After the silk was prepared, the color pigments or ink tones were applied slowly and carefully.

And what lovely works have survived over the centuries. Bing has a large collection of images of ancient silk paintings; this is just one example:

Western Colorado, where I reside, is fortunate to have a variety of talented artists displaying talents in multiple media effects. Vera Mulder is one such artist who has refined batik painting and has a large following of admirers of her work.  As a teacher, painter, photographer and ceramist, she can be found here (with drawing classes the second week of February and more information).

This is one in a series of gorgeous batiks that Mulder showed at The Blue Pig recently:

From All About Fruita:

...a series of batiks titled Rhythms in Red, this batik by Mulder features rich red and lines that create movement for the eye. Cards and prints of the series can be found at Blue Pig Gallery, Palisade, Colorado and Oakley Gallery in the Interiors building, Grand Junction.

(this one can be viewed at the Oakley Gallery in Grand Junction, CO)

And across the pond, from Surrey, United Kingdom, some beautiful paintings on silk can be found at TheWoodFairy's blog, and the author and painter, Betty, has given her permission to show a few of her works here. (If you copy any of her paintings, please be sure to link back to TheWoodFairy.)

Betty's art blog, Imaginary Brushstrokes, can be accessed here.

The Wood Fairy (Betty)  gives a tutorial on how she creates paintings on silk which you can also access at this site.  Another excellent tutorial on painting on silk can be accessed at this site on Chinese painting.

Betty painted the one below for her brother, saying..

I have included the Celtic symbols for the word 'strength' on one of the oak leaves. The oak is regarded as the symbol of strength.

If you are interested in trying this technique, products are readily available from most art suppliers. Several years ago I purchased fabric dyes and raw silk over the internet.  The raw silk was cut to fit six dining room chairs, and then I painted onto the raw silk in colors matching the tile floor on the dining area floor.  Those chair seats are still in use, but I have noticed that they need to be refreshed with more paints as the years have faded the colors.  Or is it that just the wear of sitting on those cushions has caused the dye to fade?  Either way, my next painting project is to re-paint and re-cover those chair seats.

One complete site relating to products needed for painting on silk gives a complete listing of available items including dyes, paints, silk material, resists, etc. This site, Dharma Trading, can be accessed here where I purchased the Jacquard brand dyes and resist products over ten years ago, and the dyes are still strong and vibrant.

For further assistance in painting on silk, a book entitled Beginner's Guide to Silk Painting by Mandy Southan (Search Press Limited, 1997, Great Britain) was my inspiration into dyeing on silk fabric.  This little book (available on Amazon) is a gem and highly recommended if you desire further instruction. Southan gives gorgeous pictures and detailed, step-by-step procedures.  If I can do it, so can you!

Update: as soon as my husband read this post, he asked when those dining room chairs were going to get reupholstered.  Sigh.