My love affair with silk started in 1980, on my first visit to India. On my return I immediately set out to learn the many different skills of silk painting . . . and I'm still as enthusiastic about this versatile craft as I was on day one!
I have since taught silk painting in a wide variety of settings to adults as well as children (see Educational Work), and have experimented with many techniques (see Silk Painting Photo Galleries). More recently my City&Guilds qualification in Patchwork&Quilting has given me the confidence to take silk painting further and explore exciting new ground (see Patchwork & Quilting).
Silk painting is a fluid craft with few predetermined outcomes, so it offers endless scope for improvisation and colour play. The use of wax resists is perhaps my favourite technique. But I also enjoy the challenge of free-flow techniques and creating texture through salting. More recently I have developed an interest in silk applique, and in making silk painted /printed wearables. Also, combinations of quilting and painting in Inktense fabric blocks have opened up new avenues which I'm keen to explore in the future.
In praise of silk Silk has many qualities which sets it apart from other fibres:
Silk is strong. It is finer than human hair yet it is as strong as an iron wire of the same diameter.
Silk is lustrous. It reflects light. This is caused by the silk filament starting as a semi liquid and solidifying as it makes contact with the air.
Silk is translucent.The shimmering appearance of silk is due to the triangular prism-like structure of the silk fibre, which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles, thus producing different colors.
Silk dyes well. Silk fibres, being proteins in nature, have good absorbency, and thus good affinity for dyes.
Silk is elastic. It can stretch by 10% to 20% without breaking.
Silk fabric breathes and has warmth without weight. It is luxuriously soft to touch and wear: cooling in summer and comforting in winter.
Silk comes in a breathtaking range of textures and can be combined with many other fibres.
Silk is precious. It is a slow and difficult process to produce silk fibre.
Silk is expensive. Around 12 kilos of cocoons will only produce about 1 kilo of reelable silk (long fibres) and 1 kilo of unreelable spinning silk (short fibres).
Silk is labour intensive. To produce 1 kg of silk, 104 kg of mulberry leaves must be eaten by 3000 silkworms. For example, it takes about 5000 silkworms to make one pure silk kimono.