Preparation
This is about designing your painting and preparing your workspace,
silk and frame. Careful preparation is good to avoid trouble and
disaster once you start work. But don't expect to paint perfectly on
your first few tries. If you're good in drawing or other art forms, you
will achieve better results much more quickly.
Materials
- Drawing-pins or a lightweight staple gun and staples
- Old newspapers
- Pencils
- Paper and eraser if you wish to draw out a design first
- Ready-made frame: or 4 wooden boards cut to size, 8nails, hammer, and if
desired, brackets and screws to strengthen the frame
- Scissors
- Shiny packaging tape or masking tape
- Jeweller's pliers or needle-nosed pliers and a flat knife, if you have
used staples
to attach your silk to the frame.
- Silk ( relatively lightweight jap, paj or habutai)
- Designs to trace, for example patterns used for stained glass
Workspace
Wherever you want to work, it is helpful to make workspace as clear and
efficient as possible. You may use a flat table or workbench which is
larger than the frame on which you will be painting your silk. It is
safer to paint with the silk frame laid flat , so that paint does
not dribble down over gutta lines. Extra spaces around your frame allows
you to have your other materials within easy reach.
If you are working in a small area, on surfaces which can absorb the
paint if you spill it, cover the tabletop or floor maybe with old
newspaper. Working outside is good and means less worry for spillage,
but on hot sunny days your gutta may clog up more quickly
and paints stay too rapidly on the silk for more effects, such as
rock-salting. So sit in the shade or better work indoors.
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