Painted Irises

I've been working on pieces for the upcoming exhibit at the NC Arboretum. Some of the work originated as samples for various workshops I've taught. One such workshop was silk painting which I taught for years at the Spruill Center for the Arts in Atlanta, GA. It was a basic, entry level of silk painting where students learned both the watercolor wash technique as well as using a resist.

The watercolor technique uses a wash of paint applied to the surface. Silk paint is very watery and knows no boundaries. Sprinkling salt on the surface while it is still wet creates a beautiful effect. The salt will pull the paint towards itself creating "traveling" lines. Using different size salt grains also affects the results. Table salt which has a fine granule, creates a more narrow line; kosher or sea salt which has larger granules will create the effect you see above.

The darker dots indicate where the salt was and the paint accumulated in that area. I love this technique as it creates such an interesting but not overwhelming background.

Several colors were used to create the background making it more interesting. The silk paint was watered down to make it more subtle.

Next came the painting of the design. Since the paint is so loose, you have to use a "resist" which creates a barrier and keeps the paint within the lines of the design. The design was lightly traced onto the silk. A water soluble silk paint resist was applied to all the lines. I used a little squirt bottle to create a thin line. After it dried, it was time to apply the paint. Silk paint can be a strange animal and tricky to use. You have to work with it quickly as it dries fast creating hard edges. This makes it difficult to blend with another color .

The piece was layered and quilted with a rayon decorative thread in a fairly simple design. The piece was mounted onto stretcher bars which is a favorite method for me as it looks very polished.

The back was also finished to cover all the staples etc. used to pull the piece to the back. I used picture frame wire and eye hooks for hanging.

And the finished piece  - "Painted Irises" which will work well for the arboretum as they really like nature themed pieces. 

Garden of Gold

My 2 year old granddaughter has been here all week, so a busy week, hunting for bears, making caves, baking cupcakes, reading books and trying to keep a 2 year old entertained inside when it's 8 degrees outside.

 This is a sample from a workshop I used to teach on free motion machine quilting. The sample was made with one of my hand dyed fabrics and quilted with a mylar thread; It was so pretty, I hated to just toss it and thought I could extend it into a bigger piece.

 It had already been quilted, so I needed to add a piece of batting of the same weight on the left side. It was a little tricky but it worked.

 I then added some green batik fabric to bottom and left side to make it a size I thought was pleasing.  A backing fabric was added to entire back, quilting more heavily in the green area and then using a monofilament, I went back and quilted lightly the area already quilted with a metallic thread, just enough to catch the back.

 This stabilized everything and held everything on the front to the back. You would never know I used the 2 battings at 2 different times.

 I bound it with the same fabric and think it came out pretty nice. Sometimes when I'm in a cleaning out mood, I tend to throw out things I shouldn't. I'm glad I did rethink this piece.
Hope you've had a good week and staying warm - good quilting weather, if nothing else.