A Nature Silk

This one has a home already (I painted it for my Father)

 I started with this beautiful garden spider on a background of white oak leaves.

 Then I added a ruby throated hummingbird. I took some liberties with the vine: kind of a cross between bignonia and jessamine, but I think it's beautiful.

 The far left side finished up with a dragonfly on a background of sycamore leaves and water oak leaves as a final framing piece, since I wasn't going to paint the full size of the silk. I used water and jaquard green label silk dye directly on the fabric with water to move the dye.

Finished nature silk painting

I finished with a mottled background in 4 washed of dark blue. The pictures don't do the silk justice, but I think that it turned out lovely. I am always in love with and inspired by nature.

Awaiting Autumn

It has been a long, hot summer, and I've found immense joy in it. Yet, even my favorite season must come to an end, and even though the temperature drop always saddens me, there are many things I love about fall...especially the colors.

Fall Fae Silk Painting

I wrote last about inspiration and how what I make changes as I move through the process of creation. The last piece I made was flowers in autumn colors. As the temperatures drop and the pulse of nature slows, the trees become beacons - golden beech and firey maple. Yesterday and today, I drew my inspiration from autumnal colors.

The temperatures outside haven't dropped significantly yet, but I feel autumn in my soul.

Autumn Dancers Silk Painting

The first piece that I worked on, I hated. I didn't do sketches for these, but just drew the designs directly onto the silks with my resist. Initially, the fae figure had too large of a head, too strangely proportioned a body, and no background. I made the head smaller, the waste larger, gave the skirt extra layers, and added abstract background lines...and filled the entire thing in with autumn colors. She sits beneath a stormy sunset, and I was so happy with the final piece that I decided to do another today.

As with the first, I put the resist directly to silk with no sketch, and as with the first, I hated this piece initially. Once I filled in the entire background with branches and leaves, I decided that it was going to turn out alright and began painting. It took hours to fill in the background, painting each leaf with multiple washes to give the fall leaves a realistic color gradation. I kept the figures super simple, dancing in the filtered golden light of autumn.


Fall.

Inspiration Evolves

Henna Lace Hands by Jaidra

I draw inspiration from a million places, and rarely is it a linear process. Sometimes, I see something, and it sparks an idea. Other times, I have a dream, read a book, listen to a piece of music, or feel an emotion that just has to be expressed on silk. I write this blog for others to view my creative process, but also as a spur for myself. Writing about my process allows me to analyze it, and draw a better understanding of why I do the things that I do.

In this instance, amazingly enough, there is a clear progression of inspiration that I managed to get photographs of. It began with a henna client sending me a photograph of a henna design that they wanted. I used that photograph as inspiration in creating a design for their henna piece.

Henna Leg by Jaidra

Some of my favorite aspects of the design were the spirals with "leaves" that I think look like fern fiddle heads.

I decided to use the fiddle heads in a larger henna piece that I did on my own leg this past Sunday.

A good friend of mine saw a photo of my leg piece on facebook and suggested that I use the design in my silks. My silk process uses water based resists that block movement of the dye on the fabric, but doesn't protect the silk. I would like to get some batik materials and try out some of my intricate designs on silk, but right now, I can't afford it. So, instead, I painted a small 11x11 silk with blue washes, went over it with stop flow, and then painted my fiddle head design on using black dye.

Fiddle Head Inspired Silk Pocket Square

I followed my small silk up with a larger 21x21 piece. The fiddle heads became less intricate, and I filled the space with these and leaves and chose a fall motif to celebrate the fact that summer is coming to an end.
I was really happy with the final piece, and even though the silks bear little in common with the original henna design, all of them evolved from the same design element. I don't think I'm done with this one yet, either - who knows where the fiddle head may take me next!

Fiddle Head Inspired Fall Silk Painting

Some days are more colorful than others.

Jaidra applying Henna Belly Sea Turtle with Sun

My mind has been a wandering, a wondering...around and back again to the same points that it reached before, and no conclusions have been drawn except that I keep on going, putting one foot in front of the other, try to smile, dance as much as possible, create what comes to me and hope. Eventually, all of it will come clear, or work out...but in the meantime, I can't crawl into a hole and hide because no good would come of it, for me or anyone else.

Finished Sea Turtle Henna Baby Belly

So, especially on the bad days, I reach for my henna or my resist and silk dye, or I throw some music on and get lost in drills. The past few days have been rough on my mental state, so I've thrown my mind into the creative. Usually, the pieces that I force aren't as beautiful as the ones that come naturally, but I truly believe in the whole "fake it until you make it" philosophy - at least as it applies to moods and my personal well-being. So, even though the art I make on these days aren't my best pieces, they serve the broader purpose of occupying my mind with positive things and refocusing my energy so that eventually, the funk lifts and I feel the joy that creating brings.

Finished Sea Turtle Henna Baby Belly

I had a the opportunity on Sunday to do a henna baby belly for a beautiful momma to be in Spartanburg, SC. I worked up a custom design for her with a super cute sea turtle swimming across her baby bump. The turtle had a sun on his shell, since they are having a son, and I used some simple swirls and dots to give the impression that the turtle is swimming. We had a wonderful time hanging out, and I hope that she loves her henna.

"Standing Together" Silk Painting

Once home on Sunday, I started the resist lines for a new silk painting. I wanted this one to be extremely colorful, using both styles of bubbles that I like to employ with the figures of the couples standing in the center of the piece. I kept the figures very simple, using black for the male and red for the female mixed with water to spread and shade the dyes. I was especially pleased with the background for this piece. I used a variety of washes in green for the base and blue for the sky - dotting the colors on the dry silk next to one another and allowing the dye to spread naturally.

Small Silk Painting

But I still wasn't out of my funk. So, this morning I started on a new set of projects - working on small pieces. The first of these is a female figure kneeling with her arms upraised and a floral lotus like explosion behind her head. This piece is meant to evoke joy and peace. I used salt on the top of the background to create more texture...and as I look at this one, I smile and feel the sadness lifting.

Hopefully others will feel the same...and my next piece will come from a place of joy.

If I Could Show You My Heart

Silk Painting - central figure finished

Some days they just pour out of me...like this one did this morning. I chose a dark palette for all of the background and the figure. I was searching for a "just after dark" feeling...almost monochromatic so that the central explosion really popped.

The title for this piece really says it all: "If I could show you my heart" I don't have much else to say about it. I used water to mix directly on dry silk, and the "heart" is done in bright fire colors mixed throughout to fade - yellow to orange, red to magenta, orange to magenta, yellow to lighter yellow, etc.

Silk Painting "If I could Show you my Heart"

It's about peace, and passion...finding joy within oneself, and finding the courage to share your inner heart with the world. I hope that it speaks....

Silk Painting on an August Afternoon

Silk Painting - Figures

So much has been going on in my life lately, and I've had a hard time finding the time and space to create what comes to me...until this past week, I brushed off the sketch pad and my medium sized stretcher frame and got back to the painting.

I really enjoy my abstract figure work on silk. I like using color to convey emotion, and the abstract figures that I have been playing with give me the opportunity to play with color blending in large spaces, but I still get some super detailed work in in places (like hair - I love my girls' hair!).

Silk Painting: Figures and bubble explosion background

I draw inspiration from my dreams, my desires, my fantasy, and the world around me. I love both literal, nature inspired art and pure fantasy. This piece is a fantasy, a representation of being in love, or being loved: of feeling a passion so intense that it spills out into the world around the two of you.

As I often do, I began with a rough sketch and then transferred the design freehand to the silk using a clear water based resist. I painted the figures first, making the woman a sun creature - filled with fire colors, whereas the male figure is more unrelieved night. Day and night - opposites that come together and create magic (I also love dusk).

Silk Painting: Close up of complete figures

After painting the figures, I used similar colors and washes that were present in the bodies of the main figures to fill in the bubbles that were exploding from them. I used water and mixed colors to create fades in some of the larger bubbles working dark to light. Then, I filled in the woman's hair with browns, reds, and a little yellow, keeping in tune with the palette that I had already chosen for her.

The base got a treatment of greens and browns, and then I finished the sky in black, using water to fade and swirl the color out to greys.

I was concerned that the final piece was going to be too dark, but I love it - the photos don't do this one justice! 

Silk Painting:Finished

I Belong to Neither Sky nor Sea

Butterfly-Mermaid

I really enjoy fantasy! I love to read fantasy fiction, worlds that have been created and filled with fantastic creatures and the stuff of the imagination.

I drew inspiration for this piece from another artist's work. I was sitting at my booth one day, and across from me were folk art pieces with mermaids painted on them. I proceeded to sketch a drawing of a mermaid and then I added some beautiful butterfly wings to my sketch and added the caption "I Belong to Neither Sky nor Sea....whatever shall become of me?"

Fantasy Creature on Silk

I loved this sketch, but even more than my sketch, I loved the idea of my fantasy creature. She can't fly with her giant fish tail hanging from her long, thin torso, but if she swims, she will destroy her beautiful wings. I have created a beautiful and delicate creature who has a huge predicament - there is nowhere she belongs.

Silk Painting - Fantasy Figure Finished

When I transferred my sketch to silk, I changed a few aspects of my creature. I chose to really simplify my creature, relying on manipulation of the dye and colors to bring dimensionality and interest to her without having to block out all of the details in the wings and tail.

When it came time to paint, I started on the figure of my Mermaid-butterfly woman and kept the torso extremely simply. I used two washes of brown and water to give the impression of depth and shadow at the edges of the figure and around her belly button. I chose to keep the body of the figure super simple partially because I knew that I wanted her hair, wings, and tail to be very detailed.

I used 7 different washes of green in the tail. First,  I filled in the outline of the tail with clear water and then dotted the washes of green throughout the top of the tail. I painted the fins on dry silk, using water to spread and shade the dye.

Silk Painting - Figure and Ocean finished

 I chose red, brown, orange, and yellow for both the hair and the wings of the figure. I used a similar process on the wings that I used on the tail, filling in the large portions with water first and painting dots of color on the wet silk.

The rock she is sitting on was painted using grey, green, brown, orange, and purple washes and a good bit of water to spread and shade the dye.

I chose a green/blue as the main color of the water and used the same greens and greys from the creature's tail and the rock to highlight and lowlight the water. I painted the dye on thick, using water to spread the dye on the silk.

Finished Silk Painting - I Belong to Neither Sky nor Sea

Not only is my creature in a spiritual quandary, she's also in real physical danger - I used greys, purples, and dark blues with streaks of water in order to create a feel of a storm eminent on the horizon.

I am very happy with the way this piece turned out, and I am looking forward to figuring out what other creatures will be a part of this series!

The evolution of a silk tie and matching pocket square

setting up to work on silk pocket squares

 My father gave me this stretcher frame. I'm not quite sure what this initially was (maybe part of a picture frame), but it turned out to be the Perfect size for dying 11 x 11 pocket squares!

I had already mixed my dye washes for this particular piece since I was painting this pocket square to match an already painted silk tie. I used kelly green and water to create the original washes, added yellow, brown, and blue accordingly to reach a variety of shades and tones of green to be used in the tie and pocket square.

Jaidra painting silk

 Then, I stretched the silk on the frame using tacks, rubber bands, and tiny safety pins. I use a spray bottle to keep my silk slightly damp but not sopping wet.

Then, I start to paint. Using all of the dye washes that I've mixed and a variety of brush sizes, I paint the abstract patterns that I love so much directly onto the silk, taking extra care on the rolled edges to make sure that the dye soaks through the entire silk and the thread that keeps the hem rolled.
 I've taken to dying silks in my living room while music plays on the stereo in the background....that way when I need a break, I can get up and dance for a song or two and then get right back to it!

Finished Hand Painted Silk Pocket Squares

 As always, after painting the piece, I wrapped it in newsprint and steamed for 90 minutes, washed it in cold water to remove excess dye and finished by ironing on a silk setting. I'm very pleased with the final result and the matching tie.

Very soon, these pieces will be available for sale at Artizan gallery in Columbia, SC! I'm very pleased to be an exhibiting artist here and just can't wait to see my work in a real art gallery!

Silk Ties

Dance and Love Collide on Silk

Two of One silk Painting before background paint

I've been writing a lot lately about dance. I am happier when I dance than at any other moment, except for maybe when I'm floating in the arms of creative inspiration and creating a piece like this one. I began with the desire to continue on with the abstract figure idea but create a male and female figure that were merging - the idea being that in dance and in love, two become one...or if you want to get truly spiritual and over the top emotional (or just Hedwig and the Angry Inch about it) one whole with two parts.

As happens so often in my work, when I actually went from paper to silk, this piece changed. I may revisit the idea of two bodies merging, but for this one, the merging occurred only at the top of the piece - as if the energy that they are creating in dance is not only spiraling about them, but also streaming from their crown chakras to entertwine.

Two of One Silk Painting before steaming

I had a hard time on the background for this one. I considered greys, but after some time and helpful critic, I went soft with a mix of washes in yellow, magenta, brown, and red in the base fading into washes of blue up top. I did consider darkening the male figure to create a deeper contrast with the background, but ended up deciding that I liked him how he was. Once the piece is steamed and washed, the lines around the figures will be white, so I think that will be strong enough to keep him separated from the background.


I really love this piece - it is dance, and love, and as always, the love of dance.

Finding Inspiration in the Storm

Storm Goddess on Silk

I've been doing a lot of figure work lately, and had begun moving towards more representational work as opposed to the very abstract pieces that I started with. This one is a move back towards my abstract pieces, drawing on inspiration from nature and movement - she's a storm goddess, whether conjured up by a storm or creating the wind, I will leave it to the viewer to decide. I used 7 different washes of blue for the figure and a range of greys, greens, browns and water to paint the background. The leaves blowing by introduce just a hint of color. I'm in a tumultuous place spiritually right now, and the intense weather that so many of us have been seeing recently really lent the inspiration for this piece. I can't wait to steam set and iron this one to see how she turns out.

Finished Fae Princess Silk Painting

Silk shot on an angle in attempt to show shimmer of fabric

 I used 8 different jewel toned and lighter washes to create the abstract background for my princess silk. I applied alcohol liberally over the dyes while they were wet and mixed colors in broad swathes directly onto the dry silk. I then placed both fine and large grained salt in streaks across the silk while the dye was wet. The alcohol and salt create fabulous abstract patterns on the silk. Unfortunately, I don't believe photos can accurately portray silk paintings - the silk glows, and the dye takes on jewel like qualities.

Finished Fae Princess silk - still on stretcher frame

More Happy Accidents in Silk

So often, I decide that I want to try something and I have no idea how it's going to work out. I guess that an important trait in art as well as in life is to have the courage to try something new while knowing that you very well may fail.

Something I have attempted multiple times and never been able to do is paint a person's face in detail. Silk isn't easy, and though I know it's possible, I've had difficulty in the past with the human form. Shading in detail enough to create highlights on a face that are relatively realistic is difficult on silk, so what I decided to try this time was painting very pale washes of pink and brown onto wet silk. I was hoping that since the colors were light and I was working on wet silk that I would be able to fade out the edges and create gentle highlights.

I made a sketch and transferred the sketch to silk. I hated the hair - it looked awful...so I changed it, using a technique that I've used in small scale, breaking up the hair in small sections to give the finished piece a very mosaic look...and I'm thrilled with the results. Today I'm going to attempt to remove the old hair resist lines and paint in an abstract background around her.

Silk Painting

Dancer Series Silk Paintings: Go Go

sketch of go go dancer

Oh my! It's rare that I get more than one full silk painting done in one day - it's a long and intricate process from start to finish, and unfortunately I only have one stretcher frame for each size silk that I work on. Hopefully that will change when I get a studio, but who knows when that will be!

I had a bit of a head start on today since I already had the Cancan dancer resist lines finished and only had to paint (the easiest part for me), but what really got me through was the energy that I'm feeling from these silks. I'm enjoying every part of working on this series, and I'm not running out of inspiration any time soon. My new batch of silks came in the mail and I was off and running.

Resist Lines for Go Go Dancer Silk

I didn't need to look up photos for the Go Go Dancer silk since I was initially inspired to start this series following my own experience dancing for a 70's disco themed benefit last weekend.  I used the costume I wore as the general starting point and went from there. The sketch turned out exactly the way I wanted it on the first try (a rare experience), and I immediately got to work on the resist lines.

I chose the checkerboard and disco ball themes to add in extra ties to the 70s, and left little resist circles along the checkerboard to make it seem as if they were spots from the disco ball.

The color scheme I went with was bright on bright. I used thin resist lines on the top part of the background with the intention of flooding the lines and letting the colors run together. I enhanced this effect by putting salt along the resist lines to draw the dye.

Go Go Dancer Silk - Finished

It's late now, and I'm exhausted, but happy. I love dancing, and I love bright colors, and this piece has a whole lot of both - that's the way I like it (uh huh, uh huh!)

Dancer Series Silk Paintings: CanCan

CanCan Dancer Silk Painting

I personally find it fascinating that when I sat down to decide which dance styles to represent in my new silk paintings series, I went straight to the dance styles that in their time were risque - flapper, burlesque, cancan, disco, bellydance, etc.

The third piece in the series is the CanCan dancer. I spent a good bit of time looking at pictures on the internet for my inspiration in this piece. I did what I normally do, which is take bits and pieces from different photographs as my inspiration, sketch out an outline, and then free hand the resist lines on the silk.

This piece turned out bright and bubbly, just as I planned. Now I have a few days of material imposed rest while I wait for my order of silks to get here...and then I'll get to work on my disco dancer!

Dancer Series Silk Paintings: Burlesque

fans still drying

After deciding to work on a series of silk paintings depicting dancers, I spent the morning making a list of styles that I thought may be fun to paint. Of course, I found myself listing dance styles that my friends are involved in first.

I ended up with 16 specific styles of dance that I feel can be depicted through costuming, color, and body position. I probably won't end up painting all of these, but it's a good place to start. I then did a google image search for some of these dance styles and played around with my sketch pad.

I ended up with two finished sketches, one of a cancan dancer and the second of a burlesque dancer with huge ostrich feather fans - I feel that these fans are gorgeous, and highly evocative of this dance style. 
I knew that the fans would be the most difficult part of this piece to paint, so I started there, using a process similar to the flapper dress I worked on yesterday - washes of black dye and water applied liberally around and through the black streaks to fade and fan the color.

I chose orange and pink for the dancer's body, depicted her stage in browns and grays and painted the background red using water and the same black washes to fade vertical streaks through the red in order to make the background look like curtains.

Burlesque Dancer Silk Painting

She's super sexy - can't wait to see what's going to happen next in this series!

Flapper Silk

I had a fabulous gig on Saturday night. The Go-Go dance group the 2-3s asked me to come dance with them for the Moonlight and Magnolia's benefit for the American Cancer Society at Zen in downtown Greenville.

flapper resist lines

Of course,  I was thrilled to get to dance with these women for a variety of reasons. The first being that they are all beautiful, super cool girls who I'm lucky to count as some of my first friends in a new city...the second being that my mother is a breast cancer survivor and since I am not yet monetarily capable of supporting charities that I believe in, I am always thrilled to find other ways to donate my time and talents for a good cause...and the third being the fact that I got to go dancing, and I've never found a dance floor that I didn't like!

The event was a wonderful time, and I hope that it marked the first of many events that I get to participate in with the 2-3s. Also, I became inspired by the women I was with and my love of dance to begin work on a new series of silk paintings.

I'm a silk painting fool

Though I have played with dance and the female form in quite a few of my silk paintings, I have kept the figures mostly unadorned and very general. This series is going to celebrate dance by representing specific dance styles through costuming.

The first piece I decided to work on is a direct result of Saturday night. One of the girls wore a beautiful white fringe flapper style dress. The movement of the fringe while she danced was absolutely mesmerizing, so I decided to begin this series with "The Flapper"

I did a preliminary sketch for this one - from memory and my imagination. I decided to keep the face and body general but to really increase the detail on the ornamentation: her dress and hair piece.

Flapper with background started

I chose washes of black and water for the dress and feathers to give the impression of movement, and I went pink and purple on her body with pink, purple, gray, and blue bubbles behind her.

I used a variety of green, blue-green, and yellow washes and mixed them liberally with water both on and off of the silk in order to achieve a patchy sort of grass looking base. I mixed cyan, dark blue, and black to achieve a bold background for the sky, and I faded that into a gray-blue top section.

I'm thrilled with this piece. I also finished a set of modified shibori style scarves today, and I'm impatiently waiting for them all to dry so that I can take the finished flapper off of the stretcher and start on my next dancer. More soon!

fin

Recently Sold Items

Dragonfly Hand Painted Silk Pillow

I hate taking pictures of the items I make. I love having the pictures once they are done, but I'm not a very good photographer and the act itself of trying to get decent photos is frustrating to me. That being said, I've sold quite a few items that I never photographed, and I really wish I had pictures of them. So, I am going to try very hard to get photos of everything that I make. The following pictures are all pieces that I've sold that I did get photos of. Though no two pieces that I make are ever exactly the same, I am glad to be able to post examples of what I make.

Hand Painted Butterfly Silk Pillow

Hematite, Mookatite, Turquoise and Copper Pendant

Amethyst, Picture Jasper, and Copper Pendant

Hand Painted Hickory Medalion Pendant - Tree

Hand Painted Hickory Medalion Pendant -Lotus

Hand Painted Hickory Medalion Pendant -Om

Carnelian and Moss Agate Tear Drop Pendant

Hand Painted Hickory Medalion Pendant -Branch

Hand Painted Hickory Medalion Pendant - Tree

Summer's Wish Hand Painted Silk Scarf

Autumn Leaves Hand Painted Silk Scarf

Yellow Roses Hand Painted Silk Scarf