FEB 17, 2017

I Hand Painted This One-Of-A-Kind Birthday Scarf

Hand painting a silk scarf is fun, but when there's the chance to create a design from a customer's vision, it's the best thing ever. When I was asked to make a commemorative scarf for a lady's 60th birthday by her son, he had a general idea of what he wanted in the design, and one very specific requirement – the scarf must feature the family’s dogs Iris and George – two beautiful lurchers. They sent me a rough sketch and a photograph of the dogs, so that I could get a feel of their vision. Here's how I made the dream a reality.

More info: aratidevasher.co.uk

#1

My client's initial sketch and photo of the dogs

#2

My sample designs and the final one 'photoshopped' so they could see what it might look like

#3

Starting out with the drawings of the dogs and the text

#4

Stretching the plain white silk scarf to keep it taut

#5

Tracing the dogs on to the silk with a temporary-ink pen and then adding gutta resist to contain the dye

#6

The first step complete - gutta outline on the dog border

#7

Choosing dye colours and heating up the soy wax to add colour and more designs

#8

Once the dogs were painted in (sorry, I forgot to take pictures!), hot wax was brushed on to protect them from splashes of other colours

#9

Adding dye and wax in layers to get the final effect (batik-ish technique)

#10

In progress with the text also blocked out with gutta...

#11

In progress... more layers of colour and dye

#12

In progress... adding the ferns in with hot soy wax as resist to preserve areas of colour when I put the next layer of dye on

#13

More stages of wax and dye application...

#14

Almost done with the design... every single stroke is hand painted on

#15

The border...

#16

Final stages of wax and dye application...

#17

Detail shot of the wax layers; addition of salt to the wed dye on the border creates a nice texture

#18

Brushing off the salt when the dye is completely dry reveals the amazing texture and patterns it creates

#19

The wax is removed by ironing it off on to paper

#20

After 'resting' overnight, the scarf is wrapped in layers of paper and steamed for 3-4 hours to set the dyes, and remove the remaining wax. It's rested overnight again, and then washed in cool water to remove excess dye and any remaining (eco-friendly and water soluble) soy wax