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 s t o r i e s do you have a funny or absolutely horrendous tale to tell about a disaster you've had while painting on silk? how about a disaster which you saved, can you tell us how? it will be fantastic for us to share some of these hiccups to help other silk artists, and hopefully even have a laugh along the way ... .
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T
he Tale of The Rocketship Steaming Disaster
A couple of years ago, close to Christmas, my student Laurie and I had become great friends and decided to paint up a storm (that's "a lot" of silk for non-Aussies) and try out my new 6' [2m] high silver silk steamer. We had been painting for weeks on end, painting silk for Chrissy prezzies of all kinds and finally we were ready. Out came the gigantic industrial roll of paper purchased at the paper factory, it took 2 of us to struggle to lift it up onto my worktable ... whew! We very carefully lay all the silk scarves and metres of fabric on the white paper, keeping the silk away from the edges, roll up, pull the paper, roll up, pull the paper ... When the silk was all rolled (and it was a chubby little roll, let me tell you!), it was time to suspend in the new "rocketship". I'd only ever used stovetop horizontal steamers so this was a new experience, and it was at this point I realised that there weren't enough gadgets to actually dangle the wrapped silk anywhere. I'd been sold the steamer for a huge amount of money (over $A400 4 years ago), brand new, and received a unit which sat on the floor to boil water in, plus the cylindrical shape made of aluminium and covered with silver padded outershell. The instructions came on a piece of paper saying, "Suspend silk from rod, cover with towels or teatowel". Now if any of you actually have one of these steamers, you'll know that those instructions were a little bit short of real. 
I had a silk book from the USA which had photos of how to suspend the silk, so we pored over that for a while, dug holes into the top of the cardboard cylinder we had used for the length of silk, made a hook out of a coathanger and hung the whole lot on another piece of coathanger across the top of the steamer. We assembled it all, put towels and phonebook on top, set it for 3 hrs, and we took ourselves out to the balcony for a glass of wine.
As the sun was setting, I thought I hadn't smelled that familiar "paper in high pressure steam" smell I've come to love over the years, so I checked the steamer .... I SCREAMED! Laurie came running over as I lifted the cylinder up to reveal that our beautiful roll of paper had bent the coathanger bit in half (you could all see this coming ... right?), and you guessed it, the whole roll was resting IN THE WATER ... We were shocked, we were stunned, we ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, we didn't know what to do, I felt so so guilty as Laurie had spent weeks on her silk and it was for all her family in the USA. I was griefstricken that I'd ruined her Christmas. Assessing the damage ... Well, when our tears dried up, we salvaged what we could, which was mostly the top half of the rolled silk, and yes, we lost a lot of good silk that day, but I could never throw it away. The good news is it taught us both a valuable lesson in engineering, and I've now perfected the silk-hanging-in-the-cylinder technique and have never had another accident. The ruined silk when dry had quite an unusual look to it, and ended up being used for silk cards and small projects so all was not lost. Moral of the story? 1. Never use new equipment unless you've read all the instructions and researched the internet or books to get a better understanding of what you're about to embark on! 2. Never throw silk away, you never know when it might metamorphose into a beautiful something-or-other ... 3rd Moral of the Story? don't use a coat hanger in your steamer to suspend silk on! I now use a piece of wood which is wider than the cylinder (I actually use a Fredrix stretcher strip) which now rests in the two V-grooves at the top of the "rocketship" and is very sturdy. I drilled a hole in the middle of it from which I hang the other piece of wood (also a long Fredrix stretcher strip) securely attached with a large screw and wingnut, with the silk and paper wrapped securely around it.
Removing creases after Steaming I have been told that creases in steamed silk "will come out AFTER STEAMING if you spray the piece with a 50-50 solution of white vinegar and water". [thanks Phil!] several Polls & Surveys ... please fill them in and we will share the results each month. thank you! |
Telltale Signs of Silk Painters
Cleaning dye from hands Mary recommends toothpaste to remove dye from fingertips if you have stubborn paint stains. [this article will appear in Silk Painters Guild UK newsletter 2003] by Teena Hughes, Australian Silk Artist CAUTION - Hot wax needs to be prepared properly. Please see info below.  Click here to see photos of this technique
Week 1 - applying the wax To see photos, click here I have just come home from three and a half hours in the Fabulous Fabrics textile painting class I've signed up for every Tuesday for 9 weeks, here in Sydney (Australia). I used hot wax!!! I've been painting on silk for almost 20 years, and I've NEVER melted hot wax and painted it onto silk! Wow - what an adventure! We all "stretched" our silk first, and the technique used is one I've never seen before. Because this is a workshop, no silk frames are provided - the teacher explained to us that it was best to learn the quickest way to stretch silk with the minimum items ... Stretching & suspending the silk We tore pieces off a roll of masking tape, about 2" [5cm] long, and we stuck them to the edge of the work tables. Then with dressmakers' pins close by, we pinned the long edge of the silk (or silk scarf) to the top of the masking tape (not the sticky underside). When the silk was hanging like a long banner along the edge of the table, we started attaching the other long side to the tops of chairs by using the same technique with the masking tape and pins. We had to make sure the chairs were facing towards the table, out of the way, then we put an old sheet along the seats of the chairs to protect them from paint. [In my home studio I have wooden frames, but this is a good idea if you're travelling or don't have a frame with you.] I was about to learn how to use Drimalan F paints for the first time - we watched the teacher mix them into gorgeous colours, and I chose some of my favourites, hot pink and turquoise, and started painting the silk in my "mad artist" style. To melt the wax, we plugged in an old electric frypan, added the wax, which melted rapidly and was kept very hot. When the silk was dry, I was shown how to pin the silk over the edges of a styrofoam box, to support it while I applied the wax. [This was so I could bring the silk to the hot wax, as there was nowhere to sit the hot wax near my painting space. In your own studio or at home, you would probably leave the silk on the frame and bring a container of hot wax to the framed silk.] I used a very wide brush, and tentatively applied a swift brushstroke ... I watched the wax quickly cool and congeal on the silk, wow! I knew that wherever I put the wax, the colours would remain in the finished product, so I liberally applied the wax willy nilly. Once the wax was dry, I re-attached the scarf to the table with pins and masking tape (which I'd left there), and it was time to add a NEW colour which would change the colours already painted ... I chose yellow paint, and painted the entire piece of silk yellow ... where the yellow paint touched or went over wax it left little droplets of colour as it was unable to soak into anything, but where the yellow paint touched exposed turquoise silk it turned a vibrant green! That's right, where yellow went on top of turquoise, it turned green (remember the colour wheel?). Where the yellow paint touched hot pink silk, it turned orange - faaabulous, I love bright colours! I left the silk stretched until the paint dried, and I wiped over the whole thing with paper towel to absorb the excess paint droplets still on the wax. I can't wait for next week to see how to REMOVE the wax before steaming ... now that'll be fun. Week 2 - removing the wax In the classroom I turned on the iron and prepared the ironing space. I put a newspaper down first (about 20 pages), then 2 sheets of butchers' white paper which is absorbent. Next I put part of the silk on the papers, and covered with another layer of butchers' paper. I put the hot iron onto the paper and was amazed to see the wax melt right through the paper; I ironed as much silk as I could, then put down clean paper, moved the scarf along, put fresh paper on top, and repeated the process on the next section of wax-covered silk. I repeated this until the whole scarf was cleaned of wax. It still had a slightly stiff feel to it, but I was assured this would disappear in the steaming process. The paints used are Drimalan F - fibre reactive powder dyes, and look brilliant. Result: Wonderful! I've learnt a new technique which can have many applications ... if you look at your silk books you'll see lots of examples of wax techniques, and now the fear has been removed (as well as the wax, haha), I realise it's not as tricky as I thought, and I'd recommend it to everyone. Have fun! [I'll put photos here soon.] CAUTION
TO REMOVE WAX - If you are using steam-fix dyes, most of the wax in the fabric will melt into the steaming paper. It isn't necessary to remove it with an iron first, and it is better to avoid the fumes from this part of the process if you are going to do a lot of work this way. Use extra sheets of absorbent paper (between your usual steaming paper or cloth) to absorb the wax. The residue can be removed by dry-cleaning afterwards. [many thanks Isa for this information] |
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