Magical Process on Silk Scarves

Great group with their colorful new scarves.

My friend Lynne Taylor taught another workshop at the Pink House Studio recently that involved applying color to silk. (She taught a workshop on silk painting in August - see my post from August 14th "My New Studio in Service!").

Lynne showing us how it's done.

This time, she taught us how to draw on the silk with Sharpie markers and then to move the color around with rubbing alcohol. It was much like using watercolor paint - lovely and somewhat unpredictable results that are permanent after heat setting. And because there is not an issue with the type of fiber used, the method works on cotton and blends as well.

Lynne brought an incredible array of Sharpies for us to try. Huge range of colors, a variety of tip choices including a brush. Even Sharpies specifically for fabric! There was also a range of results from the various pens too, when the rubbing alcohol was applied.

By the way, some ventilation is required once the alcohol is brought out. It gets pretty strong! 

Alcohol sprayed on the drawings on the silk.

Note the marks on the green square made by the spray.

Sharon's silk scarf with a spritz of alcohol.

Sharon's scarf with more alcohol applied.

 The first set of lovely scarves.

Carefully-rendered drawing with alcohol applied to the dots on the left.

Carefully-rendered drawing with alcohol applied very freely, including spitz.

The similarity to watercolor painting is very appealing to me. As you can see above, being careful with the drawing is not worth much in the end. Love it!