A hand painted silk chiffon scarf using Deka Silk Paints. The scarf is made from openly woven fine silk thread creating a sheer gauze fabric.
The 40 x 150cm scarf was folded in half and pinned onto a wooden silk painting frame to pull the fabric taut (see image below of a Pongee Silk scarf attached to a frame).
Random blobs of black silk paint were applied across the fabric and then water was dripped into the centre of some of the blobs to make the paint soak outwards. As the fabric is very sheer the silk paint dropped onto the surface was absorbed through to the second layer of the scarf. It is necessary to work quickly to ensure the paint is still wet before applying the water.
The process was repeated using other colours; this scarf was created using magenta and dark red.
When the paints had dried thoroughly, more colour was applied to fill the areas not covered by paint. With this example a ‘wash’ of orange and 50% water was brushed across the entire scarf, including the areas that were already painted.
The silk paints were fixed permanently on the fabric by ironing with a hot iron. It is best to place the silk between two cotton t-towels and iron on the hottest setting for 5-10 minutes. The scarf will withstand gentle washing without causing the colours to run.
Items used for this project include Deka Silk Paints and a Gauze Chiffon scarf.