How to paint it...
A selection of ideas to paint on silk
Wet threads
The development of this technique resulted from an idea I had when a speck of solidified silk paint from the bottom of the paint pot got onto my silk. When I dried the painted silk and removed the speck I noticed that it left behind a white mark.
I decided to lay wet cotton thread on wet silk before painting wet into wet and see what happened. When I dried the silk and removed the cotton thread it left behind a fine line with a soft halo.
I experimented with other threads; wool, string, rope, etc. Each left its
own characteristic texture on the painted silk.
by Leonard Thomson
Wrapped cotton thread
Prepare a silk covered frame.
Choose your paint colours - pale colours for the background and darker colours for the design.
Dampen the silk with a foam brush. Using a no.8 brush, paint the silk with a wash of the pale colours.
Dry the silk with a hairdryer. This will also fix the colour if using silk paint.
Dampen the silk a second time and lay cotton thread in a random pattern onto the wet silk. Dampen the cotton thread by dabbing it with water using a clean brush. Take off any excess water with a piece of paper towel. Dab the darker colours over the silk and the cotton thread allowing the colours to blend.
by Leonard Thomson
Hairy mohair thread
Dry the silk very quickly with a hairdryer before peeling away the cotton thread. The threads can be tied into various shapes. Hairy threads such as mohair will produce fine details.
If you wrap cotton thread loosely around the frame it will produce straight lines across the silk. Do not wrap the thread too tightly or it will lose contact with the silk during the drying process and the effect will be lost.
If you are interested, my booklet "Decorative Effects using Silk Paints" contains many more new ideas, there are details on my website.
by Leonard Thomson