Day of Crafts

What a fabulous day we had yesterday at the Day of Crafts. Fran Sayles was the first to teach, and she taught us to paint on silk using procion dyes sprinkled with salt and microwaved. Real easy and such wonderful results. The silk was wet, went through a vinegar bath (to remove sizing), rinsed and squeezed excess water out, placed on paper towels to remove more water so the material was nice and damp but not sopping wet. We each got 3 basic colors (there were more to choose from if you wanted), and mixing them gave us a wonderful array of colors. There were several application techniques we could try, like scrunching up the silk and dabbing into the paint on a palette, or folding up yoour silk and painting on the colors, which would go through all layers ending up with a repeat type of pattern, or just keeping the silk flat and doing your own thing (which is what I did). Sprinkling with salt or leaving plain (I sprinkled lots) then wrapped in plastic like the small white garbage bags. It went into the microwave for 3 minutes at 70% power in a good microwave (or adjust for less powerful microwaves), cooled (lots of steam coming out of there) then rinsed out till no color was visible in the water and while still damp ironed on a high setting. We were each given a small piece of silk and a long silk scarf. I only painted my small piece, leaving the long piece to play with at home (soon). We were each given a white textured card, with inner insert to hide the silk on the inside, and an envelope. We punched out (or cut out which is what I did because I wanted my leaves to be where the punch wouldn't reach) then rubber stamped leaf images. We chose a section of our material to insert on the inside of the card, gluing it down, then adhering the inner insert. I added the brown border and the stenciled lettering which I shadow outlined with the same brown Zig marker. I love the card. I love the silk.