My new dyes have arrived! And a few other fun things to play with...
Cured and glazed, next step is to get them off the wire and bead them up.
These pictures are from last February. I painted lots of batik patterns for felting and a couple of gutta outline neck scarves that are still waiting to be fixed. I tried out my new system and painted some more last week so I hope I’ll fix them all together tomorrow.
Simple wooden frames on my small table; my large table is taken over by patterns, dyes, brushes, sponges, mixing tray, water, pins, scarves and usually my designs book to get me started off.
I must admit I don’t always iron the silk before stretching it, but its better to because you get rid of the folds. The other picture shows the line composition for one of my abstract yucca designs. 
Stretching the silk on the frames with three point pins, from the middle to the corners.
Appliying gutta straight from a bottle for a thicker line. Thin silks are very transparent so placing the pattern underneath (not touching) is enough to transfer the lines.
Applied gutta and colours. I don’t have all the colours, I like mixing my own. I also use brushes, sponges and an ice cube tray or bowls for mixing.
First layer of colours. 
Once dry I added more gutta and a second layer of colour.
I have reset Lasidi’s priorities and have lots of work to do. Apart from having to do a big ‘spring clean’ in my shops, updating accountings, finding the right name for collections and standardising my basic descriptions, I’m upgrading all my silk painting and researching to finally label my bags. I’ll be looking back at my little ‘blog plan of action’ and posting a lot so that this blog isn’t three months behind me! Lasidi’s little production department (that’s me as well) is busy mounting polymer clay with findings and painting and fixing new silks. It’s also now a priority to slowly translate everything in to Spanish, as closing Ebay (now, a whole year ago) has completely cut out my Spanish online sales venue. Once translated, I will have to make some new decisions…
I've run out of little cards! I've also changed my bottom line again, so I've had to redesign some new ones. These are my finalists for now but I'll also print some of the others as a trial and then decide which I keep when I see them on paper.
There are lots of things to do but days still only have 24 hours and many of them are taken away by sleep... I made a little planning for Lasidi for 2009 and I'm triying to keep it up. My Lasidi "to do list" is sooo long I need to reorganize it and reset priorities every couple of months.
I cut little pieces of four different silks to see how each one takes the colours.
I rolled them up together and dipped them in the dyes to have a little sample of each colour on the different silks.
I wrote the colour name and number on each piece. I didn’t fix my new scarves yet, so I can put these little samples in with them which is great because I’ll be testing my usual steaming process with the new dyes at the same time.
The picture I selected.
A detail of it.
The detail, doubled up with mirror symmetry.
Same as before, but the other way round.
And doubled again.
Playing with colours and combining.
Beads off the wire and being turned in to earrings.
Preparing cords.
Some finished, others not. Some need to be beaded, some need to be glued.
I have applied gutta and first layer of colours.
When dry I applied more gutta and a second layer of colours. The second set of gutta lines reserve the colours of the silk underneath. The second layer of colours will add to the ones underneath. Layering colours allows playing easily with mixes. This scarf combines greens and yellows but you can also try bigger contrasts, as the colours add to each other they always contain the one underneath and will usually combine nicely.
Simple wooden frames on my small table; my large table is taken over by patterns, dyes, brushes, sponges, mixing tray, water, pins, scarves and usually my designs book to get me started off.
I must admit I don’t always iron the silk before stretching it, but its better to because you get rid of the folds. The other picture shows the line composition for one of my abstract yucca designs. 
Stretching the silk on the frames with three point pins, from the middle to the corners.
Appliying gutta straight from a bottle for a thicker line. Thin silks are very transparent so placing the pattern underneath (not touching) is enough to transfer the lines.
Applied gutta and colours. I don’t have all the colours, I like mixing my own. I also use brushes, sponges and an ice cube tray or bowls for mixing.
First layer of colours. 
Once dry I added more gutta and a second layer of colour.
I have reset Lasidi’s priorities and have lots of work to do. Apart from having to do a big ‘spring clean’ in my shops, updating accountings, finding the right name for collections and standardising my basic descriptions, I’m upgrading all my silk painting and researching to finally label my bags. I’ll be looking back at my little ‘blog plan of action’ and posting a lot so that this blog isn’t three months behind me! Lasidi’s little production department (that’s me as well) is busy mounting polymer clay with findings and painting and fixing new silks. It’s also now a priority to slowly translate everything in to Spanish, as closing Ebay (now, a whole year ago) has completely cut out my Spanish online sales venue. Once translated, I will have to make some new decisions…
