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Step 6Train: Silk Painting
There is a disclaimer on this step - this was my first time EVER doing silk dyeing or painting. Please, read as much information as you can from people who *actually* know what they're doing! ;)
Materials: There are other fabrics you can do this type of painting on but silk takes dye exceptionally well and has a great effect, plus a wonderful drape. Contrary to what you might think, plain silk is really not that expensive. I used a 12mm habotai silk for this project.
I chose my silk dye for a lot of reasons; I wanted a dye so that it would be soft, but I needed it to work with a chemical fixative. So, I used Sennelier Tinfix dye with Jacquard water-based resist and Jacquard chemical fixative. I bought my supplies from Dharma Trading; I highly recommend them for their exceptional selection and extensive FAQs and information.
1) Preparing your silk: You should always wash fabric before you use it. Most people recommend a specialty detergent called Synthrapol, but I washed my fabric in the sink with a mild detergent and it did not seem to have any negative effects.
2) Silk stretching: The frame is from the art store - you can buy lightweight, balsa like frame pieces in various lengths for super cheap. They slot together so you can disassemble it for storage. Unless you're going to cut off some of the fabric when you're done, you don't want the silk to overlap the frame. It will affect how the dye absorbs. To suspend it, you can use clips, silk hooks, or safety pins or straight pins with rubber bands attached. All attach to the frame itself with push pins. The frame is also elevated off the table with upended plastic cups, to make sure the silk doesn't touch it.
My frame is NOT ideal - but it was the best I could do. You really want the fabric quite taut, and all of it available to paint at the same time. Most people paint scarves. This is a three-yard piece of fabric. In kimono painting, they work with the fabric before it's cut - which works because kimono fabric is traditionally long, narrow strips (which is why real kimono patterns are how they are). How they line up their designs, I admit I do not really know. But there was no way to get my design placement correct without cutting the train out and sewing the center back seam, making it a super-awkward size and shape for stretching. As the New Yorkers say, whatcanyado.
3) Putting on resist: Resist is like a "fence" for silk dye which it won't pass. Think of it as drawing your own paint-by-numbers; dye applied in one area will stay only in that area (unless you screw up and there are gaps in the resist, which does happen). I wanted to copy the style of the art, so I applied resist with a paintbrush, which isn't how it's "normally" done. The resist areas will become the wide white lines in the finished piece.
4) Painting: I didn't use my colors straight out of the bottle; I did some mixing. I used disposable plastic cups for this purpose. You have to always put the cup back in the same place because it can be really hard to tell them apart; if I was using more colors, I'd have Sharpied the color on the outside.
This section was done on dry fabric. All you do is touch the brush to the fabric; it absorbs and starts spreading. It's very similar to watercolors. I found that on dry fabric the dye spreads much faster; wet fabric, however, is better at preventing hard lines between colors. Otherwise, you have to work really quickly to keep one dye section from starting to dry before you do another color. I was painting a yellow background in completely, then doing diluted Tyrian Rose (pink) in small areas near the edge, and then going over that with a darker mix of some of the diluted yellow with some Aladdin yellow to get a shading effect.
I applied the dye with various different brushes. Brushes with acrylic fibers designed for dye worked the best; fabric paint brushes second best. Standard brushes don't work so well, it was harder to get the dye out. Foam brushes and a sumi brush worked well on larger areas. Watercolor brushes would be a good option also. You can get dye brushes at Michael's and JoAnn superstores, and probably other craft stores as well.
For the background, I used a foam brush with a blue/green mix (more towards blue, due to personal preference), and then a diluted green over it in specific areas. Narrow sections were resist; larger white I just painted carefully with a sumi brush. I did the background wet-on-wet to keep it soft; which, unfortunately, caused some spotting in the dry areas. Because the background area was so large, I had to do something to break it up. I was saved by my reference - there are a few places you can see small areas of white near the top of the garment (in the blue/teal), so I think that there was a design similar to the bottom at the top as well. So I was able to hide two resist "seams" in that design so I could segment the larger areas without getting too much of a harsh edge.
NOTE: Be really careful with silk dye, it is SUPER POWERFUL. One stray droplet of it can expand into a really big stain. I actually had an incident with a speck of it that got on a drop cloth *months* after I finished this costume - if it gets wet, it will kind of cause a dye explosion all over anything it touches. Be really careful what any of your supplies come in contact with.
5) Fixing dye and removing resist: The type of dye I used works with a chemical fixative. Most people don't prefer it, because it's somewhat toxic and supposedly doesn't get the same chemical results; but I couldn't steam-set a piece this large with home methods. The fixative is diluted with cold water and you keep your fabric immersed and moving for about five minutes; then rinse and wash with a mild soap (Synthrapol would be best, but I used dish soap). You may be able to tell that the water is sort of Slimer Kool-aid green in some places; dye does come out in the fixative, but not nearly as much as in water alone. (One imagines the reason that steaming is touted as giving more intense color is that little or none of the applied dye is lost since it never comes in contact with the water.)
After the fixative bath, I emptied the sink, rinsed out the excess dye, and then re-filled it with warm water and soap to get out the resist (it requires both). There is info floating around the net that water-based resist doesn't do well with chemical fixative - even though it seems to be the only type that's compatible with it. :P I'm here to say now this is a myth - the Jacquard resist DOES get slimy/sticky feeling when it was immersed in the chemical fixative - but this had no effect on how difficult it was to wash out when the time came. I had no problems at all getting it out, and actually continued washing it after I was quite sure there wasn't any because it seemed too easy! Then the piece was hung to air dry, and I ironed it while still damp to get out some wrinkles.
Silk painting is pretty forgiving. A lot of the mistakes that looked dreadful to me were softened by the setting process. Embrace your imperfections and think of them as "organic". ;)
Materials: There are other fabrics you can do this type of painting on but silk takes dye exceptionally well and has a great effect, plus a wonderful drape. Contrary to what you might think, plain silk is really not that expensive. I used a 12mm habotai silk for this project.
I chose my silk dye for a lot of reasons; I wanted a dye so that it would be soft, but I needed it to work with a chemical fixative. So, I used Sennelier Tinfix dye with Jacquard water-based resist and Jacquard chemical fixative. I bought my supplies from Dharma Trading; I highly recommend them for their exceptional selection and extensive FAQs and information.
1) Preparing your silk: You should always wash fabric before you use it. Most people recommend a specialty detergent called Synthrapol, but I washed my fabric in the sink with a mild detergent and it did not seem to have any negative effects.
2) Silk stretching: The frame is from the art store - you can buy lightweight, balsa like frame pieces in various lengths for super cheap. They slot together so you can disassemble it for storage. Unless you're going to cut off some of the fabric when you're done, you don't want the silk to overlap the frame. It will affect how the dye absorbs. To suspend it, you can use clips, silk hooks, or safety pins or straight pins with rubber bands attached. All attach to the frame itself with push pins. The frame is also elevated off the table with upended plastic cups, to make sure the silk doesn't touch it.
My frame is NOT ideal - but it was the best I could do. You really want the fabric quite taut, and all of it available to paint at the same time. Most people paint scarves. This is a three-yard piece of fabric. In kimono painting, they work with the fabric before it's cut - which works because kimono fabric is traditionally long, narrow strips (which is why real kimono patterns are how they are). How they line up their designs, I admit I do not really know. But there was no way to get my design placement correct without cutting the train out and sewing the center back seam, making it a super-awkward size and shape for stretching. As the New Yorkers say, whatcanyado.
3) Putting on resist: Resist is like a "fence" for silk dye which it won't pass. Think of it as drawing your own paint-by-numbers; dye applied in one area will stay only in that area (unless you screw up and there are gaps in the resist, which does happen). I wanted to copy the style of the art, so I applied resist with a paintbrush, which isn't how it's "normally" done. The resist areas will become the wide white lines in the finished piece.
4) Painting: I didn't use my colors straight out of the bottle; I did some mixing. I used disposable plastic cups for this purpose. You have to always put the cup back in the same place because it can be really hard to tell them apart; if I was using more colors, I'd have Sharpied the color on the outside.
This section was done on dry fabric. All you do is touch the brush to the fabric; it absorbs and starts spreading. It's very similar to watercolors. I found that on dry fabric the dye spreads much faster; wet fabric, however, is better at preventing hard lines between colors. Otherwise, you have to work really quickly to keep one dye section from starting to dry before you do another color. I was painting a yellow background in completely, then doing diluted Tyrian Rose (pink) in small areas near the edge, and then going over that with a darker mix of some of the diluted yellow with some Aladdin yellow to get a shading effect.
I applied the dye with various different brushes. Brushes with acrylic fibers designed for dye worked the best; fabric paint brushes second best. Standard brushes don't work so well, it was harder to get the dye out. Foam brushes and a sumi brush worked well on larger areas. Watercolor brushes would be a good option also. You can get dye brushes at Michael's and JoAnn superstores, and probably other craft stores as well.
For the background, I used a foam brush with a blue/green mix (more towards blue, due to personal preference), and then a diluted green over it in specific areas. Narrow sections were resist; larger white I just painted carefully with a sumi brush. I did the background wet-on-wet to keep it soft; which, unfortunately, caused some spotting in the dry areas. Because the background area was so large, I had to do something to break it up. I was saved by my reference - there are a few places you can see small areas of white near the top of the garment (in the blue/teal), so I think that there was a design similar to the bottom at the top as well. So I was able to hide two resist "seams" in that design so I could segment the larger areas without getting too much of a harsh edge.
NOTE: Be really careful with silk dye, it is SUPER POWERFUL. One stray droplet of it can expand into a really big stain. I actually had an incident with a speck of it that got on a drop cloth *months* after I finished this costume - if it gets wet, it will kind of cause a dye explosion all over anything it touches. Be really careful what any of your supplies come in contact with.
5) Fixing dye and removing resist: The type of dye I used works with a chemical fixative. Most people don't prefer it, because it's somewhat toxic and supposedly doesn't get the same chemical results; but I couldn't steam-set a piece this large with home methods. The fixative is diluted with cold water and you keep your fabric immersed and moving for about five minutes; then rinse and wash with a mild soap (Synthrapol would be best, but I used dish soap). You may be able to tell that the water is sort of Slimer Kool-aid green in some places; dye does come out in the fixative, but not nearly as much as in water alone. (One imagines the reason that steaming is touted as giving more intense color is that little or none of the applied dye is lost since it never comes in contact with the water.)
After the fixative bath, I emptied the sink, rinsed out the excess dye, and then re-filled it with warm water and soap to get out the resist (it requires both). There is info floating around the net that water-based resist doesn't do well with chemical fixative - even though it seems to be the only type that's compatible with it. :P I'm here to say now this is a myth - the Jacquard resist DOES get slimy/sticky feeling when it was immersed in the chemical fixative - but this had no effect on how difficult it was to wash out when the time came. I had no problems at all getting it out, and actually continued washing it after I was quite sure there wasn't any because it seemed too easy! Then the piece was hung to air dry, and I ironed it while still damp to get out some wrinkles.
Silk painting is pretty forgiving. A lot of the mistakes that looked dreadful to me were softened by the setting process. Embrace your imperfections and think of them as "organic". ;)
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