For the art book sampler for my upcoming online class I chose to work with soft flowing silks and sheers because they are as beautiful to work with as they are to look at. I’m a bit like a magpie when it comes to bright shiny things, so I have a good collection of silk fabrics, and for this project I took apart an old hand dyed silk patchwork jacket that I no longer wear, and I instantly had a selection of fabrics where all the pieces are already color coordinated. I like it when things happen without too much effort.

However the colors of the fabric pieces were all a little on the dull side, so this weekend I decided to add a little brightness to the mix to balance the color selection, so I rummaged through my stash and came up with some lovely silks and sheers suitable for fabric painting.

At first thought painting on silk fabric might seem a little challenging, but you can paint on silk fabric just as easily as you can paint on cotton fabric, and for these pieces I used one of my favorite fabric paints – Jaquard Dye-na-Flow. These paints are like colored water so the colors mix and blend together similar to fabric dye.

I wanted a variety of coordinating colors with some visual texture, so after I painted the fabric I sprinkled each piece with some salt and pinched the fabric into little mountains. I also toned down all the colors with a touch of black so they weren’t quite so bright.

This is cotton lawn which is very light and sheer, painted with a blend of blue and purple and this is how it looks still wet from the fabric paint and sprinkled with a little salt.

After the fabric has dried you can see how the salt has drawn the color, and how the mountains have separated the paints into light and dark shades creating beautiful visual texture.

This piece is silk habotai which is very soft and thin, painted in a bright blue. You can see bits of black that didn’t blend in properly but this actually gives a nice contrast to the color.

This is some very thin silk charmeuse. I *love* how the colors turned out on this piece; it’s an aqua blended with blue and looks like a foamy sea.

This is a synthetic silk type fabric but I like it because it has a nice crinkled surface. The colors are orange blended with a golden yellow.

And this piece is a cotton lame which already has a beautiful shimmer to the fabric. I painted this one with Jacquard Lumiere metallic paint and it finished with a beautiful sheen and sparkle.

Once added to my collection of dark and medium tone colored silks, they now balance the color selection by providing some lights and semi-brights. I think I do much better with fabric than I ever will with paper.

If you’ve never tried painting on silk, it’s very easy and produces beautiful results. And if you’re looking to try these paints, I usually find Dye-na-Flow in my local Joanns or Michaels stores, but you can also get them online at various places including Dharma Trading, where you’ll also find a nice range of silks suitable for painting at good prices. (No affiliation, just a satisfied customer)

If you want more information on my upcoming online class, you can visit the store for full details and pricing. I’ve also just added payment by installment to make things easy for you. You’ll find details of the installment plans by visiting the store and selecting the Titivations online class that you’re interested in, and in the description for the class you’ll see the link to pay by installment.

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