Jill Chadek

To touch something soft and silky awakens our earliest emotions!

The pleasure of the touch of silk, and that long forgotten memory of the satin ribbon that I soothed myself into slumber with as a child, started my exploration of silk painting and my fascination with textiles. A few years later I was introduced to felting, that magical process of transforming dampened clumps of wool fibers into cloth! Then, when I discovered that I could incorporate the two, working the fibers to lock into the silk I was hooked!

Through time, that magical process of felting has inspired and allowed me to express my passion for color, pattern and texture. Felting, allows me to "paint" with fibers and embellish my creations with repurposed bits of vintage clothing, unique yarns, threads, and beads. Through this process I create beautiful, one-of-a-kind items to adorn your body. Wearable art!

I am truly grateful for the joy that I experience in the creation of each item and trust that wonderful emotions are also awakened in the wearer.

I have come to rely on Dharma Trading Company for many of my supplies. In my first silk painting I used Dye-na-Flow which is a paint, not a dye but it was easy to use and gave me good results on the Habotai silk scarves that I was working with. As my style of expression changed I moved on to the Jacquard liquid dyes which work great with the Jacquard metallic, transparent and black water based resists. These allowed me to produce more intricate designs, to literally paint on the fabric. Then, as I started to nuno felt I changed dyes once again and now use the Procion fiber reactive dyes as I am dying silk fabric yardage to be used in my felted garments. I have found Dharma's silk habotai, gauze, chiffon and organza all to be of high quality. Of course there are the side products such as soda ash fixer, Synthrapol, Eucalan that are needed and are also available here at Dharma.