Featured Artist : Sissi SiskaTextiles-Fine Art-Couture

I have been painting on silk for fashion, fun, and fine art for over 23 years. My products range from swimwear, home furnishings, and gift wrap, to lingerie, Broadway, and couture. I have done specialty fabrics for Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis, Donna Karan, and Disney.

I am now not only using Dharma's products for myself, but recommending them, and your friendly staff, to all my students. I have given out hundreds of catalogs in the past ten years. You're are #1 on my Recommended Supplier's List!

For my professional work, I prefer Dupont dyes, and also Tinfix. I've used Sennelier solvent based gutta for 23 years. When working with children, we get great results with Sennelier's "Silk Color" (flowable "silk paints") and aqua gutta. I also like Pebeo's black gutta and their metallics.

Specializing in my own eclectic style of "mixed media on silk," I use Jacquard discharge paste, refillable markers , "sure stamp" for making blocks, special silk salts, and various thickeners. My current favorite is the Jones Tones plexi-glue -- I'm using it with metallic foils.

Of course, no silk painter can exist without Synthropol to rinse out the dyed fabric, as well as Reduran hand cream, which is the best cleaner for dyes on the planet.

My work is always evolving. A 3 X 9 foot Orchid banner is currently on exhibit at the US Botanical Gardens/Smithsonian in Washington D.C., along with nine of my other contemporaries - some of the best silk artists in the country. Many of us will be in Sante Fe this July at the "Festival of Silk Art," organized by SPIN (Silk Painters Int'l) www.silkpainters.org.