Granny Goofs, and You Gain! ~By MysticSilks

It's been awhile since I've blogged about anything. I usually like to have something new, and or different to share with folks: This blog is definitely about the new and different !
About a month ago I ordered some blank scarves to design and dye. I ordered the 30x30 inch size thinking this would make for a most versatile silk scarf, as one could arrange or rearrange the material to suit what best appeals to them,i.e; wrap about the head and neck,or tie just around the neck;at any rate there's the length and width of material to play with.
As my hands are not as steady as they once were,I find it too much of a challenge to draw an image onto the silk scarves. Yet, I did not want to simply run dye across the scarves and call it a done deal. So, my daughter and I went out one of the last chilly snowy days for 6 hours looking for stencils(appealing stencils);we found not one thing meeting the criteria for appealing.

I was quite disappointed, and my back ached from all that walking. I decided to try amazon.com for stencils. In my search I found four books of all kinds of images, from zoo animals, to horses,flowers, butterflies, fish:I apprehensively ordered the books of stencils, not knowing exactly their size, nor quality.
Well, when they arrived I could hardly believe my good fortune;they were the right size for using on a silk scarf, plus the quality was excellent!
Humph, I thought to myself, and I spent 6 hours looking in the stores and malls. The theme" Let your fingers do the walking " went humming through my mind.


I washed any silk worm residue from the eight scarves, rinsed then ironed them.
I then tacked the scarves to a foam core board. Previous to that I had traced the selected images on tracing paper which I would place under the silk scarf to use as a pattern. I placed these traced images under the silk on the foam-core board, then began to use tinted resists to draw the images onto the silk. As I worked I was chatting with my grand-daughter who was home on spring break from medical school:In other words I wasn't being fully focused on what I was doing.
OK, the images were drawn on all eight scarves, I tacked them to the studio wood frame in preparation for dying. I dyed two scarves at a time, let them dry overnight, then tacked two more, till all eight scarves were dyed. On the 5th day I wrapped them in sheets of paper, then rolled the packaged scarves onto the wire cylinder and tied the package to secure it to the cylinder to prevent the packaged scarves from slipping into the water while steaming:God forbid!


The six day I set up my steamer, waited for the water to steam, then placed the rolled scarf package onto the riser in the steam pot; This keeps the scarves out of the water, and just allows the steam to penetrate the scarves. I set the timer for two hours. But I ran up and down the steps 10-12 times to make sure everything was safely steaming.
Steaming time was up,I carefully removed the steaming scarf package, snipped the ties that held the scarves on the cylinder, unrolled each scarf. I draped the scarves over chairs to allow them to air dry overnight. Next day they were all washed in a gentle sudsy bath, rinsed dozens of times, then ironed.
Next day as I began to get ready to take photos of them on my mannequin head prop.


As I draped the scarves in different positions to get the best shot, I notice to my most horrific awareness that all the images were inverted! In other words instead of drawing the images facing outward , away from the designer, I drew them facing me.
This affect will cause the observer who looks at the scarf while being worn, to cock their heads sideways, or upside down to get the proper view!!
That my friends is the reason for the title" Granny Goofs: Your Gain" As a result these scarves which would have a $40.00 price tag will now be almost given away for $25.00.
Do visit my website:http://mysticsilks.etsy.com

Thank you!

MysticSilks