April Castoldi

My name is April Castoldi, and I'm an artist with curiosity and passion for different media, including textiles (quilting, knitting), print-making, pen and ink drawing, and painting on silk. I have over ten years of experience creating mandalas. They have been featured on t-shirts, tote bags, phone cases, in a book, in "Yoga Journal," and I sell umbrellas with my designs on them.

At the beginning of 2021, I decided to invest in the equipment and supplies to do silk painting, and I am crazy about it. I mostly make scarves, but some people use them as wall-hangings or altar cloths. I sell some, I give some as gifts, and I take quality photos of the best ones for print-on-demand products.

I am drawn to patterns (no pun intended!), including ones from nature, like the arrangement of petals on a flower, photos of microscopic diatoms, cross sections of carrots, etc., as well as those created by human artists for various purposes, such as wallpaper, textiles, temple art, and Crown Jewels! I love the symmetry of mandalas, but I also enjoy patterns with a less formal structure, and I can spend hours browsing through books of patterns. I also love to create custom art to really WOW people. It's become a kind of spiritual process/practice; I interview the person, I look at the photos they've shared on their social media posts (if available), and I use my intuition to make art that I think will inspire and touch them based on images or ideas that they cherish. I like to find ways to turn a list of all kinds of ideas into a unified visual design.


The Dharma Trading products I use include:
Kieralon detergent - to prewash the silk
Jacquard Red Label silk dyes - so far, I only use magenta, cyan, yellow, black, and sapphire
Disappearing ink markers - to sketch my designs
Dupont diluant - when I need to paint a large area and want it to stay uniform
Habotai silk 10 mm, mostly. I cut my own scarves and hand sew the hems with silk thread so it will be dyed to match the fabric.
Cyan-Yellow-Magenta Primary Color Wheel - to help me mix colors
Batik wax - but I add beeswax to decrease the cracking
Jacquard Silk Salt
Better Tjanting tools

I melt my wax in a small electric wax melter.
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Habotai Silk 8mm Habotai Silk 8mm Habotai Silk 8mm Painted with Dye-Na-Flow by Nancy Cunningham Painted with Dye-Na-Flow by Nancy Cunningham Artwork by Featured Artist Carolyn Doe Artwork by Featured Artist David Ludwig Artwork by Featured Artist Laura C. Hewitt Artwork by Featured Artist Laura C. Hewitt Black Silk Habotai Navy Silk Habotai Royal Blue Silk Habotai Electric Blue Silk Habotai Turquoise Silk Habotai Frozen Blue Silk Habotai Aqua Silk Habotai Sea Glass Silk Habotai Sage Silk Habotai Gun Metal Silk Habotai Purple Silk Habotai Plum Silk Habotai Lavender Silk Habotai Silver Gray Silk Habotai Champagne Silk Habotai Ivory Silk Habotai Light Gold Silk Habotai Fawn Silk Habotai Teal Green Silk Habotai Emerald Green Silk Habotai Apple Green Silk Habotai Chartreuse Silk Habotai Brilliant Yellow Silk Habotai Persimmon Silk Habotai Peach Silk Habotai Hot Pink Silk Habotai Rose Pink Silk Habotai Magenta Silk Habotai Chinese Red Silk Habotai Burgundy Silk Habotai Chocolate Brown Silk Habotai Optic White Silk Habotai
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