Deka Silk Paints in a choice of sizes. Deka silk paints offer an alternative to steam-fix silk dyes and leave fabric with a soft handle. They are a popular option for learning the techniques of silk painting.
The silk paints are offered in a large choice of non-toxic, brilliant water based colours that are fully intermixable. They can be used alongside other Deka Silk products for a variety of techniques and are suitable for silk, cotton and other textiles.
They are wash fast up to 60°C, and dry cleanable, after heat setting. Heat set when the paint has dried by ironing on the wrong side, or under a t-towel, for 3-5 minutes at the cotton setting, or wrap in aluminium foil and place in a pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes at 150°C.
Silk Painting with Deka Silk
- Deka Silk are free flowing paints with a consistency not much thicker than water. This makes them ideal for silk painting because the paint begins to travel across the fibres the moment the loaded brush makes contact – very satisfying!
- Use Deka Silk with the choice of Deka mediums including Mixing White to make the colours pastel without losing hue, or Accent White which contains a more concentrate white pigment for picking out highlights in your painting (i.e. the crest of waves or glints in eyes).
- The paint can be “contained” by drawing an outlined design using silk outliner. Silk outliner is much thicker than the paint and creates a barrier to prevent the paint from spreading beyond the outline. Our partly painted butterfly shows an outline drawn using Deka Clear Outliner. The outliners are also available in a choice of colours.
- Jacquard No Flow antifusant will help to inhibit the flow of paint on the silk fabric. It is applied with a brush or sponge over the area you wish to paint and allowed to dry. It prevents colours from bleeding and allows detailed painting and handwriting. After painting with the silk paints (allowing them to dry and heat set) the anti-spread can be rinsed from the fabric restoring its original softness. Deka Silk Covering White works in a similar way but remains permanent on the fabric making it feel stiffer.
- The silk paint can be applied to the fabric with either a brush or a dropper. We have included an image which shows a silk scarf decorated using a dropper and just 2 colours (black and yellow) of Deka Silk paint.
- While the paints are still wet on the silk fabric, water can be dropped onto the colours to make them spread further and make the colours more transparent. Dropping another colour onto the wet paint will make the colours blend.
- Applying two different colours side by side will make the colours join together to make a blend.
- Applying subsequent layers of paint to dried paint will deepen the colour.
Find out more about getting started with silk painting from the Blog.
We recommend ordering 3-4 colours of Deka Silk Paints to get you started, and the larger size 500ml bottles offer excellent value for teaching workshops and silk painting classes!
