Free Form and Fancy Free
December 4, 2010
On December 11, I will offer a fabric painting workshop to show you my simple method of painting on fabric. When I first delved into silk painting I spoke with accomplished silk artists and visited their studios and researched the equipment I would need to get started. Being the kind of artist that I am I like to get started right away and didn’t want to invest a lot until I got rolling. So I built my own frame out of stretcher bars to stretch the silk and started some experiments. I’ve been using my acrylic paints to paint cotton fabric for quilts for several years now, but I wanted to work on silk and see what I could do with it. I tried various silk paints and dyes and settled on one with minimum fuss – no steam setting required, just iron to set the colors. And then I eventually stopped using a frame, which is necessary for delicate, detailed silk painting, but what I do is free form merging of color that I get just as easily working right on the table. So that’s what I do. It’s the Just Do It method of fabric painting that is so easy and liberating because, if you let it, the fabric basically paints itself. The results are gorgeous if you’re not attached to having it look any particular way, but allow the colors to merge and interact with their own natural flow of magic. Silk scarves and shawls, and also recycled cotton …In this way you can restore new life to old clothing, household items like cloth napkins and tablecloths, pillow cases…. favorite t-shirts, dresses! Participants in this workshop will want to bring any light colored items they have because, although I will provide scarves and other items for you to work on, once you get going you’ll want to paint and paint and paint – you’ll want to paint everything in sight.
