Following last week’s setbacks, it was hard to tell how close these paintings were to completion. A few more steps on each, and I called them done.
I’m linking up to Nina Marie Sayer’s Off the Wall Friday here. I am ready to check it out for my weekly inspiration!
After the steamer disaster, I had to rework details on my three Winter Tree Series. Back came the Magic Sizing- and I drew in details in faded and blurred areas. Then steamed again…
Next, back came the stencils! At this point, they were pretty soggy, but I did my best. Also, I tried to keep pace with two other paintings, also at the stencil stage- so I did a lot of paper cutting. For one area, I wanted a soft misty effect. I tried to use cotton balls, pulled apart until wispy, to mask an area. And- it worked! 
I’ve identified a problem with my Winter Tree series. I need to keep the backgrounds simple, but I don’t like them as flat as they are. So, let me try to add texture, while keeping it simple. Now, I am remembering a resist technique done with salt on silk… If I can reproduce it, that might do the trick. Here’s one of the paintings, with a too flat background. 
So the technique I remember involves dipping the silk into a bath of water and LOTS of salt. Next dry it, press it, and use a mist of dye to saturate the fabric. The effect of the salt crystals is that it resists the dye, keeps it from flowing, and preserves tiny white or un-dyed spots wherever the salt crystals are, giving a pointillist effect.
The salt to water ratio I used was roughly 8 cups of water to 3/4 lbs of plain table salt. I boiled the water on the stovetop, dissolved the salt as much as possible, and removed the pan from the heat. I dropped in three of my winter tree painting series (they are small paintings). I let the salt water infuse the silk for 20 minutes or so, and then removed the paintings to the sink and let them cool. Oh! I burned myself at this stage! They were so hot! Next time I’ll make sure to use a wooden spoon to remove them…
Don’t rinse them! When they are cool, gently squeeze out the excess and hang the silk to dry. The next day they were dry- and I could see the salt crystals evenly distributed, encrusting the silk. I pressed the silk with a warm iron, to get a nice drawing surface. 
I taped the paintings to the window- so I could trace a stencil using recycled paper. I traced the trees, then cut the stencils for each of the three paintings.
After cutting the stencil, I stretched the painting back on the frame, and placed the stencil on top. Then I sprayed the painting with dye in a mist bottle, to get some background color. 
Finally I ended up with a softer background for each of the paintings. Now I will need to steam set it, and only then rinse out the salt. A vinegar rinse after that should make them soft and luminous again. I’m not quite at that stage- the last painting is still drying on the frame…
Drawings in my sketchbook spurred me to a new series in process now. Working on silk coated with Magic Sizing, and using a brush with very little dye, I can work with a linear quality I usually find in my pencil drawings. 
After steam setting this drawing, I can rinse out the Magic Sizing and start on the next layer. I’ll be adding some color, so I will need to preserve the tree outlines with my water resistant gutta. 
After the gutta dries, I can add color.
After adding my silk dye, I tried to add a bit of texture with some salt, with little result on this painting. My next stage will be some shadowing on the trees. This painting is looking a bit underfinished to me, but I do like the direction it is heading.
Posted in Working in a Series
Tagged hand dyeing, silk painting technique, Winter Tree Series
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