Thursday, October 13, 2011

Silk scarves - setting paint in the sun

At last I did some of my sunpainting on silk scarves.  I had a friend around and we each made one and then I used up the excess paint to do a final one and that turned out to be my favorite.  This was the first one I made.  Black and green, with cardboard butterflies and ferns from the garden.  The other one was similar, but with pink and green..
 with the leftover paint I think I laid it on thicker and put it out into the sun while it was wetter.
 that one in fact worked the best!
 the shapes came out much clearer and I think the color is brighter.
 this is the first one finished - the ferns left an imprint but the cardboard butterflies did nothing - interesting.
 Look at the amazing detail from the plumbago flowers even though they were so light and delicate.
 I used setacolor transparent paints, and a couple of things I learned were:
put the item out in the sun asap - this makes the color brighter.
Use natural items out of the garden - not cardboard designs.
Have you done anything like this before?

I got my supplies from http://www.dharmatrading.com  - they have not given me any discounts or rewards for recommending them.  It is a great site - they have  a lot of tutorials and advice and I found there prices and delivery very satisfactory.

6 comments:

Open Kitchen Concept said...

I think these scarves are really beautiful!

Joyful said...

Very pretty. I've never seen this kind of work before.

Snowcatcher said...

I'm so thrilled to see someone else's positive experience with setacolor. My first attempt was not as beautiful as yours, but your words of advice (get it out in the sun quickly, cardboard doesn't work) are very helpful. The butterflies were such a great idea! What a shame they didn't leave an impression.

Joy said...

This is a very interesting craft - I love silk and your scarves are so pretty! Joy x
PS Thank you for your sweet message on mine! x

Nanette said...

Your sun prints turned out beautifully. I do these a lot, and find I get good results by putting a sheet of glass carefully down on top.....I just buy cheap (ugly)frames from the op shops and take the glass out. You still get the sun directly on them, but your resists are held down firmly, especially pieces like your butterflies. I also cover pieces of heavy cardboard with plastic to put the fabric on, then wipe up any paint with a spare piece of fabric, leave it scrunched in the sun and you then have some interesting "modern art" pieces.

africanaussie said...

I havent checked these comments for a while - thanks for all the great ideas!