I love painting flowers!! This is a detail of a piece called "Blue Poppies".I love vibrant colors!!
And brushes!!
And dyes!! And art supplies of all shapes and sizes!!
Two weeks ago, I took a few pictures of my neighbor's beautiful Tulips, wanting to use them as reference for a silk scarf I was going to paint.
When I tried to upload them to my computer, the camera's battery was dead!
After charging it and uploading the pictures, the printer wouldn't work!!
Trying not to lose it, I took a deep breath, went into my storage area and grabbed an armful of silk Tulips! (Going with the flow.)
Silk flowers come in handy, if you don't have the real-deal! Aren't they gorgeous?!I was all set to go! I hand-washed the white silk and hung it to dry.
Then I attached it to the stretcher-bars.
I figured out my color scheme using my silk 'color-chart'.
I made a drawing of what I had in mind.
These were the colors I decided on.
Then I chose my dyes and...
Really?
After cleaning up the mess, I outlined the design with a water-soluble resist.
When it dried, I painted the flowers and leaves.
Later, when I painted the background, I realized that the resist was too thin and the colors bled. Seriously?!!
I had to outline the design with resist again, and when it was dry, paint over the areas that bled.
Then the scarf was rolled in steaming paper and placed in a steamer.
It steamed on the stove for three hours.
I usually have five or six scarves steaming at the same time, but I needed this one for this post. :)
After the steaming process, the scarf was hand-washed and rinsed until the water was clear, hung to dry and ironed. (The colors are then permanent.)
Since I'd decided to paint a pink background instead of the darker one, like in my drawing, the colors just didn't 'pop' enough for me.
I hung it back on the stretcher-bars and outlined the entire design in black, giving it a more graphic look.
Now it had to go back in the steamer for another three hours and be washed and ironed again!
And finally, on the third day -
It's finished! (Oh happy day!!)
Not wanting to waste the left-over dyes, I decided to paint a Poppy.
No muss! No fuss! Just for fun.
Why a Poppy?
Because, in that armful of Tulips, was this single, flattened-out, faded Poppy!
There was just something about it.
So, like before, I hand-washed, dried and attached the new scarf to the stretcher-bars.
But this time, I didn't do any of the sketching and thinking about it, I just dove right in.
(But I made sure to use a thicker resist!)
(I LOVE my studio!!)
Like the other scarf, this one went into the steamer for three hours, was hand-washed, ironed and...
TA DA!!
Not one problem!! And I'm really happy with it.
Sometimes "going with the flow" doesn't suck!
Signing off for now,
gabriele
