Creating Wearable Art on Silk~ By Mysticsilks

I tell myself after creating each new series of silk scarves, that this is my last one. But then the creative muses stir within me and I am back to designing new pieces.
With the six new scarves, there are two that are quite different in size. Instead of the usual 12x 60inch silk satin I decided to try working with the 15 x 70 inch silk satin: And what a challenge that presented.

First I had to alter the size of the wood frame: I extended it in length by a foot. And I discovered with the larger size scarves, you can not connect two together on the frame to dye. The reason, with the extra width, it is difficult to do detailed work, such as seen in the Ocean scene silk scarf.
I am showing the photos of the beginning steps to both the Butterflies scarf(which is shown after it is completely dyed, and the Ocean scene beginnings and after it is half completed with dyes.
I will continue to photograph the progress of the remaining four scarves from the first stages of designing, to the dying process.
Then after steaming all six to set the dyes deep into the fibers of the silk, I will show the finished product in the next blog.

Until then visit my shop at: http://mysticsilks.etsy.com
You will see wearable silk art, and silk art that is framed and ready to display on your walls.

Thank you.
Mysticsilks

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

For The Holiday Season`Five New Silk Scarves: By MysticSilks

Every time I am in the midst of creating a new selection of silk scarves,after spending hours on my feet hand dying the silk, I swear to myself, this is the last time.
But the process does not start with the dying,it really begins with the designing of what pattern I want seen on the silk.
With this selection of new silk scarves, I drew templates for each scarf.

The first one was the pattern I call Stained Glass Silk( that'is the scarf in the upper left side. .......... After I drew the template/s( and this applies to all the scarves shown today) I placed waxy tracing paper over the template. I did this to prevent the water based resist( the liquid I use to draw the pattern onto the silk) from sticking to and runing the template/s.

You can look at the templates and tell which scarf it was used for.

The silk scarf next to" Stained Glass on Silk", is "The Cosmos". I did not use a template for this one.--:)

The Third scarf on the left is " Pinwheels". The template for that one is right above the finished scarf.

The next one " Sunshine and Lollipops" and for some reasons you can see two templates used for that scarf.--:)

Then last but not least is "And all That Jazz". You can see its template right below the scarf.

I never seem to be able to upload my photos to my liking on blogger.com. And I have too much 'attention deficit disorder' to read in depth on how to upload photos, or to at least re-arrange photois once uploaded.

After the patterns were all drawn on the scarves,and the scarves were then pinned to my wooden dying frames,I began the process of doing just that, dying.Now, I want to share with you, That after I began dying " Stained Glass on Silk" I could have bitten my bottem lip off! Placing different colored dyes in each block, or space on that scarf took 3 hours of standing on my feet, on a cement floor. Whew!

But, it turned out so unique and beautiful, like giving birth, I had to say it was all worth it.

Just as an added thought, and it has not one thing to do with creating silk scarves. But have you ever wondered at how many times you handle an item you buy at the grocery store before you even pick it up to use it?

Eight times!! I counted this morning after coming home with the groceries.

I'll be looking foward to your visits to my etsy shop, at

http://mysticsilks.etsy.com

Until then, enjoy the day!

MysticSilks

MysticSilks Has Gone Bonanza!

Hi all.
Just wanted to let the world(friends) know that MysticSilks has taken a leap of luck, faith;whatever you call taking a chance and joined another online selling site, called Bonanza.
I saw a link on etsy in the forums, but it wasn't called Bonanza, it was called 1000markets.com. I clicked on that link and was taken to a place called Bonanza. I clicked my tongue, and clicked out of that place, still hell-bent on finding 1000markets.
Well after doing this procedure several times, I stopped and read that 1000markets sold out to Bonanza. OMG! OK, so I read through their set-up process and decided to join.

I'm going to see if I gain any more sales there. etsy has changed so many things, and the competition with folks from China who are now selling mass produced silk scarves on etsy, perhaps people are bypassing my shop. Who knows?

So come by and see me at http://www.bonanza.com/booths/mysticsilks1