Peony Scarf

 

     This project began in 2009 when I drew my peony template.  I had this marvelous plan to make a stunning scarf of the many petaled flower which flourished in my families garden, until my home was demolished in 2012.  Over the weekend, my Mother told me that she remembered where she got our peonies as they were not purchased in any store.  The story goes that my Mother went over to an old doctors office in the neighborhood, as it had been gutted and left in between ownership, and she took the peonies which were planted there.  She saved them and then transplanted them into her own garden along side our home.  Recycled and tended to with care, the flowers were split many times over the 20+ years they thrived in our garden.  With fond memories of the lush electric pink peonies which bloomed without fail, I desired to create a scarf which would reflect all of their glory.

      The template, the plain drawing, took me three days to complete.  I originally wanted to make the scarf without a boarder; however, anyone with any experience with silk painting knows that to paint a white scarf ANY colour at all, and keep that colour even and flawless over large areas is practically impossible.  Therefore, I split my painting up using the leaves of the peony and the boarder.  Until I master the art of painting larger areas without flaw, I will use the boarder to help the transition.

      The above photo is three days worth of painting.  As I have listed before in my blog, resist cannot keep on the silk longer than five days.  The longer is sits, the more the wax within the product spreads, thus making it difficult for the dye to hug the resist lines.  Something which I was experiencing into day two of my painting.

     In the end, this scarf was a marvel.  I have not yet steamed it and I am a little concerned with it's welfare; that is why I took so many pictures of it.  This is the scarf where I have broken all of the rules of silk painting.  I have not purchased any new supplied since 2010, they are expensive and I have lots and lots of the old ones.  The problem with my particular silk dyes is that they are advertised to last only two years on the shelf.  For mine, it's been at least five.  As for the resist, I purchased and did not open 1L of resist in 2011.  It has been three years, and when I finally opened it, there were little flecks of mould growing in it at the lid seal.  I have shaken up all of my dyes and stirred up my resist, and the below picture is my final result.

  
     Peony scarf: 15" x 72".  I have broken every rule in the silk painters book with this one and I am excited to see what it turns out like.  In the end, I am very satisfied with how it turned out and I hope to make many more in the future.