A bit of silk painting

Joan Radven of HAFA (Houston Area Fiber Artists) taught a lovely silk painting class today, and one of the new things I learned about was a water-based resist called Sabra Silk Resist. The nice thing about it is that you can apply it, then apply your dyes or paints while the resist is either wet or dry. The first test was on silk crepe, which I decided I really like ... but my resist lines were too thin, and the dye "jumped the bridge", as you can see from the first picture above. The second test was on silk habotai, and I was careful to leave a heavier trail of resist this time. Result ... no breakthroughs. Next time I'll try adding a pinch of dye powder to the resist before applying it, for a colored line instead of a white one.

Despite my failure with the first resist test, I find that I prefer that image to the second one, because of the softer color on the crepe vs. the harder line on the habotai. Joan made the class really fun and informative, in spite of fighting a cold and laryngitis ... thanks, Joan!