Lynne with Wax and Dye

My finished pieces on Lynne's frame.

A couple of weeks ago, I traveled through a blizzard and minus degree temperatures to make good on a long-planned visit to the studio of my friend Lynne Taylor. She paints, she woodworks, she sculpts, she dyes. She is an all round fantastic artist!

The Lovely Lynne

The focus of this play date was to have Lynne teach me how to paint on silk with fabric dyes, as she does when she makes her beautiful scarves. So, I helped her set up the fabric (several types of silk, also some rayon and cotton) on her large frame.

Then Lynne showed me how to paint on the fabrics with liquid Procion dyes. I loved watching the dye spread across the fibers differently on each of the fabrics. Next she got out her wax and related tools, and things got really interesting! A new way of thinking about surface design developed as I played with what dye and wax could do as partners. Some experiments worked better than others. My absolute favorite is this raw silk with several shades of turquoise. The texture of the silk was wonderful to work with - very nubby but soft. I want to wear this one.

I'm loving all this fabric play. Next: do something wonderful with them!