Playing with Salt
I haven’t done much painting lately but I thought I would share a little of my experimenting with salt. In case you don’t know, when salt is placed on the wet dye, the dye is pulled toward the piece of salt. The affect is dependent on how damp the silk is, the dye itself, even the humidity. The dye will continue to be pulled toward the salt until the silk is completely dry. It happens sooooo slowly — it’s kinda like watching grass grow.
The above picture was done with some fine solar sea salt. I painted some red and blue along with the black to add some interest. Here’s a close up:
I think some of the patterns look like feathers on birds’ wings. It is fun to see how different people react to this scarf. Everyone seems to want to share what they see in it. This was painted on Habati silk.
The scarf above was also sprinkled with the solar sea salt. It looks completely different, doesn’t it? I call this one “Midnight rain” because it looks like sprinkles to me.
See how different the dye can look!
The scarves above were have new homes with daughters of my friend Robin.
Now for something completely different. This is what happens when you don’t think anything is happening so you become impatient and you spritz the silk with water (with the salt on it) then go to out to dinner with your husband.
How fun is this!!!
The bottom line is, you never really know what you are going to get when you sprinkle on a little salt. The only thing you know for sure is that you are going to get a really neat texture. So, sprinkle away.
Until next time…
Rainbows in Waterfalls 