Beginner's Guide to Silk Painting

Mandy Southan trained at Ravensbourne College Of Art And Design and has a BA Hons. in Fashion/Textile design. She is president of the Guild of Silk Painters and a member of The Sussex Guild. She has painted on silk for many years and is particularly interested in traditional Japanese resist techniques. She experiments continually to find new ways of using old methods and her work on silk often combines different resist processes. Mandy teaches silk painting, rozome (Japanese wax resist) and Shibori at West Dean College and at her home studio in Hastings. You can see Mandy’s work on her website: www.mandysouthan.co.uk

Introduction

Basic materials

Using colour

Colour mixing

Sunflower scarf (painting on damp silk)

Textured effects (using salt)

Using resists

Using gutta

Fossil scarf (using outliner)

Autumn leaves (using gutta with a blended wash)

Sea spray scarf (using wax)

Kingfisher cushion (using wax)

Moving on

Velvet cushion (using discharge paste)

Striped scarf (using diffusing medium)

Exotic orchid wallhanging (using dye-tinted gutta)

Greek mountain landscape (using salt solution)

Flower and grape panel (using anti-spread)

Finishing off (adding detail)

Glossary

Common mistakes

Index