Beating the Heck out of Silk

When I first started working with Marcia-the-Mentor, I was astonished at how much she’d do to a piece of silk before she called it finished.  Now she’s got me doing it.

This started out as a pink scarf that I overdyed with purple.  I used soy wax and batiked leaf shapes over it, then dyed it a darker purple.

I hated it.

I gave it a warm bath in thiox and as the pink and purple were removed, the scarf became pale orange and beige. 

I cut some shapes out of clear contact paper and stuck these to a blank silk screen.  Using Procion MX dyes thickened with sodium alginate, I made a dye paste to use on the silkscreen and made three color passes over the entire scarf:  one yellow, one orange, one a very greyed-out purple.  I just listed this piece at my Etsy shop.

To the left is the screen I used.  I blocked off one side with paper and duct tape and used only half the screen at a time. 

I later used the larger shape on the left of the screen to use the same process on another silk scarf I wasn’t happy with, pictured below and listed at my shop on 1000Markets.

This one was done in cooler shades, using the same greyed-out purple dye as well as a yellow-bronze color, and just a touch of pink.

Both of these scarves feel wonderful; I think the hand of the silk softened with each process, although it’s still as strong as ever.   As always, they’re colorfast so you can handwash them in the silk with a little Woolite, or by machine on the gentle cycle.  Drip dry, then touch up with an iron.