Silks
“Every woman should possess some silk”
Silk is a glorious texture, so fine, light and lustrous. It dyes superbly – resulting in rich, vibrant glowing colours. Silk textiles are so versatile, as well as being warm, light, strong and sensuous.
My silk textiles include silk shibori – pleating, folding and then dyeing to create wonderful colour patterns on the fabric. This style of silk art is available as scarves, garments, wall hangings and wraps.
I also paint imagery on silk, creating fabrics which are art pieces. Again these are available as scarves, garments, wraps and wall hangings.
Silk art is a wonderful exploration. The dyes and colours behave with some level of predictability, but there is also an aspect of the unknown and the unexpected which forms part of the process.
The silks are wonderfully long lasting and although some fading occurs, I have found this is fairly minimal over many years as long as you follow the care instructions.
As with my other textile arts, I offer workshops in silk shibori and also silk painting.
Click here if you would like to see more silks.
Click here to see workshops available
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Wearability of silk
People are often concerned about how fragile or wearable a silk item might be, so in order to dispel the idea that silk wont last I took these photos of three of my own scarves.
These three scarves are each around ten years old. I have worn them numerous times and simply took them straight from wearing to photograph, so they havent been ironed or washed or anything. You can see that the colours are still good and strong and the fabric is fine.
How to care for your silks
To look after your silk, you should store it away from sunlight. Prolonged exposure to sunlight will cause the colours to fade. Wash your silk, by hand, in luke warm water, using a good quality wool wash. Rinse thoroughly, adding a teaspoon of vinegar to the final rinse water. This refreshes the lustre of the silk. Spin for around 1 minute in your machine. You can then either hang it to dry somewhere where the fabric wont tangle against itself - otherwise you might get colour transfer while it is wet. Better still, take it straight from the machine and iron it dry (dont us your iron too hot, or you will burn the silk). Then just hang it to air. Dont ever soak dyes silk, as once it is wet, colour transfer happens much too easily!