Yet another productive weekend has passed and I am still loving every minute of making these glorious scarves. This past week I got a job offer and decided to open an Etsy store later this year. The reason for a late opening of a store is because of two things, time and money. Which really are the deciding factors when it comes to a lot of things in life. The time part is because each of these scarves takes me between 2-5 days to paint. Unfortunately, I have to wait for the resist to dry before I can start any of them. Not to mention the task of painting with multiple dyes, and then the washing ironing and photographing of each of them. I can understand why some people give up on their passion. Doing excellent work takes time to complete, and time is what most people cannot afford to pay for. Nonetheless, I am hopeful that I will be able to sell my art and maybe, one day, make a living off of it.
This brings me to my next triumph, the "Mucha Red Peony". This scarf was executed with raspberry and Hydrant red for the flowers. I would have gone with the pink again; however, I wanted to switch this one up. This scarf was not without it's challenges though. There are a couple of different places where I can purchase the scarves, one is in Toronto, Ontario at a company called, "G&S Dye". This is where I have purchased my silk, and were I get most of my resist and all of my dyes. They are an excellent company and their silk measurements are always bang on; however, in 2009 when I found myself out of work, I decided to opt for a more affordable silk - Enter the "Dahrma Trading Company" from California. At that time, they were much cheaper than "G&S Dye" even with shipping and paying duty on the incoming package. Over the past few years as the Canadian dollar continues to lose value in the United States, it has become less affordable. But, this leaves me with a very large order of silk from them which was not the dimensions as advertised.
I don't know what it is, perhaps, "You get what you pay for", would be the best answer. When I purchased the silk the measurements stated, 11" x 60"; which is what I was ordering from Toronto; however, when I brought it home and stretched it, it was closer to 10.5" x 59.5". I was distraught. All of my patterns for all of my silk designs I draw to scale on paper first; so then, once slipped underneath the silk, I can copy my design. With the silk from California, I have to improvise and this is where I ran into trouble with this "Mucha Red Peony" scarf.
Obviously, there is a lot of line work on this scarf; and, therefore tricky if you are constantly having to move the design around the silk to get what you drew to fit. I made a couple of mistakes with the line and while I tried to correct them, it wound up bleeding enough wax onto the unpainted surface to cause a problem. Luckily, with painting both sides of the scarf, I was able to avoid any obvious imperfection. The end result I find quite pleasing and I am happy with. I hope it can find a good home.
This eye catching scarf got away from me....3 years ago. It was one of the scarves which never sold and I realized that I had not photographed it yet. I am so happy I finally did and it looks incredibly striking against the black background.
In truth, this is not the incarnation I intended for this scarf. I originally wanted to use gold leafing as the line work on this scarf and the colour scheme was to be completely different as well. I wanted to paint it in fiery reds, oranges and yellows with gold as the line work. Instead, I decided to experiment with a colour palette closer to the film for which is it's inspiration and namesake.
My homage to Dreamwork's "The Road to El Doroado" will be re-imagined into what I originally intended. All I need is a little more time. Honestly, I cannot wait to continue to paint. It is so artistically satisfying and, one day, I hope it can be all I will do.
No comments:
Post a Comment