Setting Directions
After you have painted your piece . . .
1. Leave your finished piece on the frame. It's easier to handle. Dry your piece very well. Let it sit overnight or use a hairdryer on it. Pay special attention to the rolled edge which holds more moisture.
2. Paint on the dyeset. (I TBS Dyeset Concentrate to 1+ cup water) I use a big wide brush and just go at it like I'm painting the house.
3. Let it sit for 5 minutes. It doesn't have to get dry. (But it doesn't matter if it does dry.)
4. Take it off the frame. Rinse it under running, comfortably cool, water until the rinse water runs clear. Sometimes this takes a while, sometimes it doesn't. It depends on how much "over painting" you did. This is the stage to watch for spots of dye appearing on light colored areas. If they do, rub them out between two fingers. A little of the undiluted Dye Set Concentrate helps on stubborn spots, too, for some mysterious reason.
5. Towel blot the silk just so it’s not drippy. Iron the damp silk until it's dry. I always use a press cloth to help the iron glide smoothly over the fresh gutta lines and also to keep the gutta from getting on my iron. If you accidently iron in a crease, re-wet the spot and iron again. Always dampen silk to iron it. It works way better.
Overpainting
When problems do occur, it's almost always because of overpainting. That means there is more dye on the fabric than the threads can absorb. That extra rinses off, naturally. Before you set, if you have any areas you are suspicious of (see possible suspects below) dab them with a cotton ball soaked in dyeset. I use a plastic clothes pin for a handle. If a lot of color comes off on the cotton ball, keep doing that with fresh cotton balls until you get most of the excess off.
Common causes of overpainting are:
1. Too much dye on your brush. If the dye puddles up and looks shiny, that's dye sitting on the surface. Dry your brush off well on a paper towel, touch the tip down in the puddle, and it will soak up the extra.
2. Painting layer after layer to try to get a certain look. Yes, you can put color on top of color to blend and adjust the color, but there is a limit. After a 2-3 layers, you are probable just layering it on top and the surface dye is all going to rinse away anyway, leaving you with whatever was absorbed into the threads in the beginning.
3. Small spaces. Small spaces hardly take much dye at all. Develop a light touch, using just the tip of your brush, or find some really small brushes to use.
4. Those dark shadow edges. When you layer colors and get those neat dark edges, don't get too carried away. Sometimes those shadow become big piles of pigment washed up against the edge. When you are rinsing and those shadows touch another part of the silk, you may get a print of that shadow shape. Again, rub those stray marks between your fingers and/or use a little undiluted dyeset.
Miscellaneous Info
Slow down. Learn to paint allowing the dye to spread itself out. Paint near, not up to, the edges. If you paint every square inch, there is no where for the extra to flow to.
Jacquard Black Dye seems to run the most. Maybe it's because we tend to overpaint to make it look really black. Even when it doesn't affect the rest of your piece, the final result is a dark gray. I have had no problem when mixing it with other colors for dark blue, purple, etc.
Red seems to run more than yellow or blue. Be careful.
When your piece seems to "lose color" when you rinse it, it is often because when you overpaint, the air spaces between the threads are bridged with dye. At that point, the colors look more intense because you are seeing color instead of the empty space. It is also true that all colors look darker when they are wet. Imagine a drop of water on your jeans, etc. It is not normal for a color to change much, except in the above cases.
When I pre-wash big pieces, I use Synthrapol and wash them in the washing machine using the gentle cycle. The fast spin cycle leaves wrinkles that are kind of hard to get out. Iron pieces while still damp to get them smooth and shiny again.
Steam Setting
I am not a knowledgeable trouble shooter on steaming because I have not tried all the homemade stove top steamers I see in books. Here is what I know from using my big steamer.
I did some testing comparing steaming with chemical dyeset setting and found that there was a little difference in brightness, but not much, at first. The main difference I found was after washing the pieces two or three times. Then the steaming was noticeably better. And some dyes require steam setting.
Steaming does make the colors “pop”. I steam for items to be washed and when I want colors really bright. I chemically set most of my paintings where I want the colors to meld. I had some nice rusty red fall apples “pop” into magenta ones - not what I had in mind.
For steaming, the silk is rolled between layers of clean newsprint or cotton sheets around a center core. It is hung inside the steamer, and steamed for . . . . . I’m not sure what to say on timing. Different books, different dyes, different steamers all seem to say different things. Heather, my steaming partner, and I usually have a thick roll of yards of fabric, so to be safe, we let it go three or four hours. I understand you can’t oversteam.
On some areas that are overpainted, the excess dye bleeds through the paper separating the layers in the roll. We now use cloth sheets and put extra layers between suspicious areas.
If any areas get wet by touching the sides of the steamer and soaking up condensation, the colors smear all over the place.
You still wash the pieces after they have been steamed. I haven't had trouble with getting bleed spots when rinsing. I don't overpaint too much anymore, and the cotton sheets absorb some excess.
When finished steaming, I wash the sheets in hot water and detergent and reuse them. Any color remaining is set and does not come off on the next pieces.
Tips
-
•People often email me with questions that come up as they are painting. Remember, these are just my opinions and experiences. They are based on using Jacquard Green Label Silk Colors. Other dyes may work differently.
