Silk Banner for Drakey - Part 2
3. Iron silk and tape it to the printout. Trace the lines using a pencil onto the fabric. Be sure of your marks as the pencil stays and can be seen if you don't use the gutta on them. Sorry, forgot to take a photo of it still taped to the printout. I did the tracing while I had Benny underfoot so it was done quite quickly.
4. Put the silk into your frame. Now this frame could be wood or plastic tubing. It just has to be a bit larger than the piece of silk. I have a framing system that I purchased from Rainbow Silks in England. This is the first time I've used it for silk painting. I've previously used it for testing the waxed fabric creation. However I didn't use the clips that go with the frame to hold the silk stretched. I followed Isabella E's idea (YouTube videos referenced in previous post) and used bulldog clips and rubber bands. My findings so far is that they work very well but I really needed double the number of clips I had to keep the tension right - especially along the top. And the frame flexed in the middle due to the tension but the system does provide rods to use to remove the flex, I just didn't use them this time.
5. Use Gutta to draw the lines. This is the "resist" that stops the fabric dye from flowing into where you don't want it to go. It has to be drawn evenly as it stays visible (if you use any colour beside the invisible gutta). I used black in this case but I've also got a gold tube in my stash. My drawing is a bit rough and ready in my opinion but I'm using the 10 foot rule for this project. This is due to it being needed for the event this weekend - the banner was made on Monday and Tuesday.
6. Using a paintbrush "paint" the dye onto the fabric. In this case as it's got large spaces in it there are some marks where the dye dried before I painted the next bit. But again - 10 foot rule. If I was making this for a competition or such I'd be more more careful. I painted the purple and gold first. I ended up with some bleeding where the gutta may not have been as well placed. But it wasn't too bad.
6a. Then I painted the drakes using black dye. To get the feather affect I used a brush that only had a light amount of dye in it and "dry brushed" it. The other option would have to have used a fabric paint pen.
6b. Finally I painted the dragon fill. This was definitely rough and ready but gives the dimensional affect wanted. I was very light on with the gutta so there is some bleeding but doesn't mess the affect.
7. Let dry completely while still in the frame. Then unclip it and iron the silk to heat set the paint. I put the iron on silk setting and ironed the whole thing 4-5 times slowly. I reckon probably about 2-3 minutes in each area.
8. Finally find a piece of cotton fabric to make a sleeve for the banner (as like how Elizabeth Hunter does hers). Mine was leftover stash that I had bought to make bunting for Benny's birthday. It's a polycotton but doesn't matter. Pin the selvedge edge between the two edges of the sleeve. I just ironed the cut edge folded into the sleeve on both sides and then folded and ironed the sleeve in half to form it into a tube.
I'll put it onto a pole on Saturday and it's going to used for processing Acacia and Drake into their investiture ceremony.
4. Put the silk into your frame. Now this frame could be wood or plastic tubing. It just has to be a bit larger than the piece of silk. I have a framing system that I purchased from Rainbow Silks in England. This is the first time I've used it for silk painting. I've previously used it for testing the waxed fabric creation. However I didn't use the clips that go with the frame to hold the silk stretched. I followed Isabella E's idea (YouTube videos referenced in previous post) and used bulldog clips and rubber bands. My findings so far is that they work very well but I really needed double the number of clips I had to keep the tension right - especially along the top. And the frame flexed in the middle due to the tension but the system does provide rods to use to remove the flex, I just didn't use them this time.
5. Use Gutta to draw the lines. This is the "resist" that stops the fabric dye from flowing into where you don't want it to go. It has to be drawn evenly as it stays visible (if you use any colour beside the invisible gutta). I used black in this case but I've also got a gold tube in my stash. My drawing is a bit rough and ready in my opinion but I'm using the 10 foot rule for this project. This is due to it being needed for the event this weekend - the banner was made on Monday and Tuesday.
6. Using a paintbrush "paint" the dye onto the fabric. In this case as it's got large spaces in it there are some marks where the dye dried before I painted the next bit. But again - 10 foot rule. If I was making this for a competition or such I'd be more more careful. I painted the purple and gold first. I ended up with some bleeding where the gutta may not have been as well placed. But it wasn't too bad.
6a. Then I painted the drakes using black dye. To get the feather affect I used a brush that only had a light amount of dye in it and "dry brushed" it. The other option would have to have used a fabric paint pen.
6b. Finally I painted the dragon fill. This was definitely rough and ready but gives the dimensional affect wanted. I was very light on with the gutta so there is some bleeding but doesn't mess the affect.
7. Let dry completely while still in the frame. Then unclip it and iron the silk to heat set the paint. I put the iron on silk setting and ironed the whole thing 4-5 times slowly. I reckon probably about 2-3 minutes in each area.
8. Finally find a piece of cotton fabric to make a sleeve for the banner (as like how Elizabeth Hunter does hers). Mine was leftover stash that I had bought to make bunting for Benny's birthday. It's a polycotton but doesn't matter. Pin the selvedge edge between the two edges of the sleeve. I just ironed the cut edge folded into the sleeve on both sides and then folded and ironed the sleeve in half to form it into a tube.
I'll put it onto a pole on Saturday and it's going to used for processing Acacia and Drake into their investiture ceremony.