My Silk Painting Exhibit At Jericho Library December 2015

This show will run until the end of the month. It was nice to see and meet the people who came out to see the exhibit today!  Jericho Library 1 Merry Lane Jericho New York - Library Hours

 

 

Provincetown A Dream For Artists

My husband and I spent a few days this summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts or P town as it is lovingly called. For those of you not familiar with Provincetown it is quirky, fun, artsy and has gorgeous natural scenery and interesting architecture, a dream place for artists or photographers. I found the light to be wonderful since the town is surrounded by water on three sides it is full of clear colors.  Fittingly they have many art galleries full of colorful paintings.  Although I didn't have the opportunity to paint while there I did take some photos that perhaps I will use for reference material.   
                                          A few photos I took during my visit.

Remembering Mom: A Iris grows in my garden

My mother's name was Iris. She passed away last August and in remembrance I planted a iris in my garden. I also planted irises years ago outside her apartment and she loved to look at them each spring. So you could say this was to be the last iris I planted for mom.
I have a few irises in my garden scattered around, all of them iris blue in color. So when my irises started to come up this Spring I couldn't remember where I had planted this "special" iris. I recently weeded my garden and accidentally a few were removed so I thought I might never see this particular iris. But today there it was standing tall majestically by itself, the only one that was cream and burgundy! And it made me smile



Mom's Iris 

My Silk Painting 

Chanel Spring Collection 2015 and some of my designs Vivien Pollack -Color

Vivien Pollack Scarves 

                     

                 Chanel Collection

Chanel Spring 2015 Collection is colorful. Have you seen it? I think it is a definite WOW, but then again I have been designing similar colorful scarf  designs for years now.
Take a look at the fantastic fashion show here on youtube of Chanel 2015 collection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emkZ5rVIv7Q









A  few of my colorful scarf designs below

Playing with Sugar with Silk Dyes on Silk

Sugar can achieve some interesting texture when it reacts with the silk dyes on silk. Not quite as dramatic as using salt but it still has interesting effects.

First you need to make a thick syrup like solution, which will then act as a resist. You can use confectioner sugar mixed with small amount of hot water until it has a runny consistency. If you want you can boil together equal parts or water and sugar on the stove and let it cool. Or you can use icing sugar and mix equal amounts of hot water to it.  Remember you want it to be fairly thick but runny. If it starts to harden warm it up a bit or add a bit more water if needed. You can also use granulated sugar dissolved in warm water.

I used steam set silk dyes with my projects. 

There is different ways to work, you need to experiment. You can apply the sugar mixture to the silk leaving areas white then add dyes around it or apply the dyes first and add sugar over it and you can then add more dyes making a layering effect. Usually when using resists you allow the resist to dry before applying the dyes, but in this case more interesting results occur when the silk dyes are applied while the sugar mixture is still wet. The sugar mixture is not as strong of a resist barrier as gutta so it produces a softer effect.

 Example on the right. I mixed Confectioners sugar with hot water and applied the mixture by dropping it on with a brush to the silk first and applied the dyes around the sugar drops while the sugar mixture was still wet. I also added more sugar later in places. 

 Finished the piece by steaming. Then I rinsed out my scarf in lukewarm water and removed all the excess sugar.

The finished scarf  below after steaming and rinsing  

layering sugar on to the silk with dyes using icing sugar mixed with water   

A piece of the finished silk after steaming and rinsing

More examples of  silk pieces using sugar