Materials: Fixing Agents
Most of the silk paints and dyes are extremely susceptible to water
until the colour has been set, or fixed, in the fabric. Even if your
painting has been lying around 'air curing' for days and days, if a spot
of water touches it, a permanent mark will be made. Until the paint or
dye has been fixed, the fabric is not washable. There are several ways
to ensure colour fastness, and each brand will specify the processes
available to it, the times required for steaming, and the dilutions and
times required for chemical fixing.
Chemical Fixatives
Those brands of silk paints which can be set by a chemical instead of by
steaming, all have their own particular type of fixative to set the
colour. Most of these seem to be a mixture of acetic acid, or vinegar,
and water, but because
the acid or alkaline balance in the different brands of paints may vary,
it is safer to use the fixative which goes with that brand. You should
follow the instructions for dilution and use which are on the bottle.
Those brands which have a chemical fixative say that you do not need to
steam and need only use the fixative, but the trouble with this is that
some of the colour washes out of the silk while you are soaking it in
the fixative bath, so you can never get the really vibrant colours from
using fixative alone. Therefore, I always steam my silk or stabilise the
colour in the microwave first, and then soak it in a fixative bath.
Steaming
Steaming actually enhances the vibrancy of the colours and, in addition,
is more effective in setting them. So there is less chance of the colour
running both while you are fixing and whenever you wash it afterwards.
You can use an ordinary saucepan or a pressure cooker to steam the silk
(the advantage of a pressure cooker is that you can steam for half the
time), but you can only do one scarf at a time and cannot do big lengths
of silk. This method permanently presses the folds into the silk. It is
also fairly easy for water to get in and ruin your work this way. Even
so, in the beginning you will find it is sufficient, and far less
expensive than buying a commercial steamer.
The best thing if you are going to do lots of silk painting is to get a
proper steamer: you can order them through the outlets listed in the
'List of Suppliers', or you can get one made up by a sheet metal worker. They are very expensive,
whichever way you do it, because stainless steel is used. However, you
can save some money by having one made up, and this also means you can
get a bigger one done so that it can accommodate wider silk.
Microwaving plus fixative
This is a simple but effective way of ensuring much better colour
retention than using fixative alone. It is less liable to crease the
fabric or to produce watermarks than using a saucepan or pressure
cooker. Basically the microwave is used as a steamer, and yet it is not
enough on its own to set the colour completely: you will need to use a
fixative bath to complete the process. Because microwaving can scorch
the silk, or even set it on fire,
Ironing
Unlike the thicker fabric paints used for painting on other materials,
silk paints cannot be fixed by ironing. There is a type of dye fixable
by ironing which is very close to silk paints in the properties
discussed above, except that it does not bleed as well.
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