Gourd Crafts and Silk Painting

Good Evening!

You might ask yourself what gourds and silk painting have in common so let me tell you.  My mother recently gave me a book from her collection of arts and crafts resources called Gourd Crafts by Marilynn Host.

On pages 104-106 there is a series of photos of gourd bowls done in southwest designs.  Now, I lived in the southwest for nearly 17 years and still miss it. When I saw these designs it brought back a lot of my memories of my time there.  And as I sat admiring the book, I got an idea for a scarf and proceeded to paint the one below.  I used a gold gutta which you can just barely detect in this photo...in person it has a wonderful look!  And as you can see this is a contemporary - almost abstract - design with just a hint of southwest in it.



I also have a small silk bag that I painted in a bit more traditional southwest design.



Another design I would like to try is something like this gourd.

If you would like to research gourd crafts and carving for yourself  Google Books has this book and many others like it for sale.  http://books.google.com/ebooks

Marilynn Host's Book is ISBN 0-8069-4423-4

Enjoy!

Janet

Summer Memories as I Clean Up for Winter

Hello!

Today was a day made for working outside.  The sun was shining and though it was brisk (ice on the pails of water) I worked hard enough to take two layers of clothing off...which put me down to two left on!  I trimmed, pulled, bagged and relocated.  Generally just tried to get everything in ship shape for Mr. Winter.

There were still flowers on some stalks of poppy and a few marigold...quite a few Pansy and violets, but up they came regardless.  Still looking at the colors in the blossoms brought back memories of my garden in its glory this summer...

I painted this scarf during summer while daydreaming about all the bright colorful blossoms, butterflies and hummingbirds.  It is 100% silk with gutta and silk dye.  I do all my drawing free hand and then hand paint it in using small brushes.



If you should be interested in silk painting you can check with a local art store or online you can take a look at Dharma.  They are helpful and have everything you need to get started. 

http://www.dharmatrading.com/

Goodnight all,
Janet

Clematis in Bloom

Mother Nature always surprises me and keeps me smiling.  The temperatures are getting colder and colder here now, yet when I walked out of the house the other day there was the Clematis vine blooming!  During the summer it had been absolutely covered in blossoms which had inspired me to paint this silk scarf.  It only had three blooms this time around, but I had to admired its tenaciousness to be blooming when temps are topping out at 50!  And the deep, intense purple and pink-purple was just as breathtaking as it was earlier during summer.

I draw free-hand on the silk with gutta after preparing the silk.  Then I use special dyes designed just for silk to paint it all.  After that it sits for 2 days and then gets wrapped up in paper and stuffed into my homemade steamer for three hours.  Then another day resting.  Next it gets a rinse in a special soap, hung until damp dry and then ironed.  Whew!  And most of that I actually enjoy! :)

Hope you enjoyed seeing this...and now I wait until next year to see the Clematis in bloom again,
Janet