Steaming right along in preparation for our Studio Tour event this coming weekend, I’ve been designing my first ever black silk scarves, using black scarf blanks and then drawing and printing on them with discharge paste to remove the color:
When discharging fabric, different value ranges can be achieved by adjusting the amount of steam applied to the areas treated with the paste. I used both a homemade thiox-based discharge paste and a store bought discharge paste.
By using both types of discharge paste as well as varying application methods between direct drawing and screen-printing, I was able to get some subtle color changes in the discharged areas, ranging from blue to tan.
All 12 of the discharged black silk scarves I made, ready for the weekend studio tour.
I made 12 of these to go along with the 12 eco-dyed silk scarves, so I’ll have 24 scarves on display and for sale at my studio during the Fort Collins Studio tour this weekend. More info about the 35 participating studios and tour maps can be found here.
12 discharged black silk scarves (detail)
It’s going to be a hot weekend in town, so I’m hoping that lots of folks will stop on by our Hanna-Hooly studios to cool off and see some new artwork. We’ll be here all day Saturday and Sunday from 10am-5pm, so please come by and see us if you can.
They are like floating on the ocean. What did you use to discharge? I’ve never seen black to blue. They’re beautiful!
Thanks Michele, glad you like them. I used both jacquard discharge paste and a homemade thiox blended paste. When discharging black commercially dyed fabrics (these were all silk “blanks” purchased from Dharma), it’s always a mystery as to what color you might get because it depends on what type of dye base the black dye was made from. Sometimes discharging will give you a yellow-ish/tan, or green, or in this case mostly blue (although some of the scarves did discharge more yellow/green too), and it’s because the “black” dye was a blue-black, or green-black base color. Even within this group of black silk, different scarves discharged with some different coloring.
they look almost indigo–spectacular!
Thanks Arlee! I was quite surprised (pleasantly) with the color results from the discharge, especially the blues. It’s funny how varied the discharged color range was, even within this group of 12 scarves, all purchased together. Besides the blues, there are some subtle greens and yellows too.