Monday, June 29, 2009

A VAST Encounter with Silk Painting

Melanie from The Creators Palette and Marionette

Belonging to VAST, an online art group through Etsy, has brought me several blessings. I met my good friends Schar and Dava (who both live on Kauai), and now I have had the pleasure of meeting in person Melanie , a wonderful lady and artist! She and her husband came to Kauai on vacation last week, and one of the activities that she made time for was my Silk Painting class! We had a great time talking story about art, Kauai, and life in general. Here's a peek into the class:

I teach the French Serti Technique and this is what Melanie is doing to create her lovely plumeria design. From Dharma Trading Co: "The Serti (closing or fence) technique is the silk painting technique where designs are formed with gutta or water-based resists, which are applied to white silk that has been pre-washed, dried and stretched (on a stretcher). Once the gutta or water-based resist has dried, it acts as a barrier for the dye or paint—keeping the color within the outlined areas of the design and allowing you to achieve sharply defined borders. (Without this barrier, the dye or paint would flow into more of an abstract, undefined pattern.) After the dye or paint has been properly set, the clear gutta or resist is removed and a defining line the color of the original fabric remains. Colored guttas and resists are also available that are meant to remain in the fabric."
I decided to paint a silk scarf with Koi fish. You can see my underdrawing (the purple pen) where I made some changes while applying my resist.
Here Melanie is applying her silk paints beautifully to the plumeria design.
My koi fish are now ready for a colorful background!
Here Melanie is using my "secret weapon" to make the designs in the background of the scarf. Can you guess what it is?
The background is still wet, but it is almost complete!
Melanie's plumeria scarf is gorgeous as it dries on the frame!
Hope you can join me for a Silk Painting class one day! For more info on classes, please visit my art class blog at www.kauaiartclasses.blogspot.com .

Mahalo for visiting!
Marionette
www.kauai-artist.net

12 comments:

Mystic Silks http:mysticsilks.etsy.com said...

I notice you put the tacs right through the silk piece you're working on.
Interesting and lovely!

Klaire
MysticSilks

Jordanka Yaretz said...

i have always admired your tallent, Marionette and i can see that you are a great teacher.

Melanie said...

What a thrill it was to meet a VAST friend in person! Such a sweet person and wonderful artist!
Mahalo Marionette!

Rachel Lundy said...

Hi! I'm stopping over from Melanie's blog. I had never heard about silk painting before, and I enjoyed reading about how it is done. Very neat!

TERI REES WANG said...

Oh, I really need to find the time, the knowledge and the bravery to pursue this technique.
It is speaking to me.

Melissa said...

I took a class in silk painting a while ago. Now I'm inspired to drag out the dyes!

Beautiful work. I love the koi swimming in the flowing background.

Julie B said...

What a lovely gift you each received in having the opportunity to meet and share experiences! It would add another layer to the VAST online community.

Schar Freeman said...

Shootzzzz wish I could have taken this class and meet up with Melanie. Marionette is my favorite teacher. Beautiful pieces of work both these are!

aloha,
schar

Kate Ladd Art said...

What fun you two had! And beautiful silk paintings from both of you !!

TreasuresFromHawaii said...

Gr8 work Melanie! You couldn't ask for a better teacher...Just wish Schar and I could have joined you both - next visit for sure! :D

God bless...Dava

michele said...

Oh my gosh, Marionette, I wish I could fly to Hawaii right now and make one of those beautiful scarves. I absolutely adore the blue color. I think your secret weapon is salt.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out my blog recently, I wanted to let all my followers know that I’m embarking on a new challenge.

Extremely Crafty is calling all crafters to unite against childhood cancer as part of our Craft Against Cancer challenge for the Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign.

Help by doing what you love – crafting and we would love to tell the world about your efforts. We’ll post on our Fundraiser page your photo and link back to your blog or website.

Read more at http://www.extremelycrafty.co.uk/Craft4cancer.html

Best wishes, Marionette! Michele x

Jean Levert Hood said...

How awesome to meet another VAST member and get to create together! What a gorgeous scarf, too!!