Brand: H Dupont

Silk paintings are usually created on white silk fabric. The dyes are painted onto the stretched surface of the silk using a paintbrush. The dyes flow into the fibre and bonds with the silk material, becoming a part of the silk thread. This makes the colour generally lightfast and washable. Many artists use a dye thickener or an antifusant on the surface of the silk to slow the progress of the dyes through the silk. As a result light can pass through and reflect from the lustre of the silk giving true vitality and luminosity to the image.

Silk painting using dyes has been practised for a long time. There was a revival of interest in silk painting in France in the early nineteenth century with the discovery of Gutta, and again in the 1980’s with the availability of concentrated dye solutions. Gutta is a rubbery resist that can be used to create boundary lines on a silk. The dyes that normally would flow through the silk are stopped at the boundary created by the Gutta. This gives the artists control over positioning the dyes on the fabric allowing them to create images.

The alternative for decorating silk fabric is silk paints, which George Weil also supply. These paints are composed of small particles of opaque pigment bonded to the surface of the fabric by an acrylic binder which blocks light from passing through the fabric.