Silk painting is a project that kids love! They make a line drawing or design with the Resist, let it dry, then use the colorful silk paints to fill in the spaces between the lines. Impressive results can be achieved with simple designs! No chemical fixatives are needed. Easy set-up, implementation, and clean-up. Results in a nice finished product to bring home to Mom or Dad!
Instructions
Basic Instructions when painting on Stretched Silk Hoops:
If you're painting on the silk hoops, no preparation is necessary beyond mixing colors if you choose to do so. All you need to do is apply your clear resist straight from the tubes (make a small opening in the tube with a straight pin). Let the resist dry, and then paint away! Or you can skip the resist and just paint free form. The Clear Resist and paints do not need to be heat-set but then should not be gotten wet when finished. The hoops are great to hang in a window or as an ornament or to hang on the wall. They look great when backlit!
Instructions for bigger projects:
If you'd like your group to be able to paint a more involved project like a scarf or a pillow cover, you will need to stretch your silk first. Here's a cheap and easy way to stretch your silk without stretcher bars:
You'll need "Reynold's Freezer Paper" or an equivalent, which comes on rolls, 18 inches wide and 33 yards long. You'll want your silk piece to be no wider than 18 inches (or you'll need to overlap two pieces of freezer paper). Lay the cut-to-size freezer paper on your work surface, shiny side up and then place your silk on top of that. Place a thin piece of fabric for a press cloth on top of the silk and iron the whole area of the silk piece so that the silk adheres to the freezer paper. Remove your press cloth and you are now ready to paint your scarf.
Doing the Painting:
You can paint an abstract design without resists. Just dip your brush into paint, place it on the silk, and watch the color move! It's a lot like watercolor painting. If you desire more distinct shapes and forms, use the resist to create barriers that will hold in the silk paint where you put it.
Be sure to let the resist dry before painting on your color! If you are using Colored Resist, you should heat-set the dried lines with an iron before moving on to painting. (Cover the silk with a press cloth and iron for about 30 seconds on each side on the silk setting.) The Clear Resist does not need to be heat-set first (which is why we recommend it for simpler projects).
For items other than the Silk Hoops, after you have applied your silk colors, let the piece dry overnight, remove the freezer paper, and then heat-set with an iron (cover with a press cloth and iron 2-3 minutes on each area of the silk with the iron on the silk setting). If you have used clear resist on your piece, rinse the silk in warm water to remove it. The clear resist will wash away, leaving white lines. (The colored resist is not meant to come out.) Iron your piece again while it is still damp to get the wrinkles out, and voila, your piece is done!
