Hand-Dyeing Silk Accessories

Smart Solutions : Episode SSL-930 -- More Projects »

A variety of accessories--a lampshade, fan, or even a book cover--can be made from silk fabric colored with a salt-dye process.

Designer Rose Mary Cohen demonstrates how to paint silk fabric to create beautiful accessories for decorating and wearing. She uses a salt painting technique.

You will need a large frame for stretching the fabric you are painting. You can use any fabric for this technique, but silk takes the dyes especially well.

Steps:

Begin by stretching the fabric over the empty frame. Start in one corner and secure the fabric into the frame with a push pin. Moving clockwise around the frame, stretch the fabric and secure with a pin until the entire piece is stretched over the frame like a picture canvas.

Figure A

Figure B

Figure C

Figure D

You want to use three colors of fabric paint to create about seven colors. If you use more colors, the look will become muddy. Use one brush for each color. Apply some color onto an area of the fabric and while it is still wet, sprinkle some rock salt on the paint in the middle (figure A), and sprinkle table salt on the outer edges. Fine-grain salt produces a streaked effect (figure B), while coarse grains produce a star effect (figure C).

Create a free-flowing pattern with your paint, swirling and dripping the paint for a complex pattern (figure D). Fill in all the white spaces and sprinkle with salt.

When the fabric paint dries, you can create a more controlled design with rubbing alcohol. Simply paint on a design with the alcohol over the dried paint.

Also in this Episode

Smart Solutions : Episode SSL-930
•	Help With Herbs
•	Hand-Dyeing Silk Accessories
•	Cleaning Outdoor Furniture
•	Smart Solution of the Day

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Hand-Dyeing Silk Accessories

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