Janine Maves

Hi Dharma Folks,

I've been a silk painter for 20 years and a Dharma customer for over 15 years, and have decided I'd like to come out of the closet and be included in your featured artist section. I have a degree in studio arts with an emphasis in graphics, and have worked in print publication and design since finishing school. Twenty years ago, I took a one-day silk painting workshop and was immediately addicted to watching the color flow over the silk. I've been a silk painter and a Dharma customer ever since. Even though I've been lurking for all these years, I think about everything in my studio (except my Susan Moyer's frame) comes from Dharma. I started out using Deka paint products when my kids were small and I worked at the kitchen table, but over the years, I have experimented with Dharma Procion dyes, Jacquard Textile, Lumiere, and Pebeo paints. I love the way rayon and the new sandwashed silk take Dharma Pigment Dyes, which I now use exclusively. I've found I can mix in a little Lumiere Metallic when I'm feeling sparkly. I use Dharma GAMT bottles and tips for serti lines. I'm still using a huge jar of Deka resist for clear and use Jacquard gutta for black. I use Milsoft and Synthrapol, an Arty's stretcher for square shapes and an old Moyer's wooden frame for oblong shapes. I think of my work as a meditation. I've given away Dharma catalogs and have shared your website all over North Carolina.

For the past year, I've been using Speedball fabric inks to silkscreen old vaudeville publicity shots of my grandmother onto my scarves. Please visit my website at http://home.earthlink.net/~jmaves/index.htm to see examples of these and all my other work.