Printing with Silk Flowers

By Lynda on July 28, 2024

I was in Joanns the other day and all of their silk flowers from spring and summer were on sale for 70% off. I've never printed with silk flowers so I thought this would be a great opportunity.

Here are the flowers before playing with them. They were so pretty I almost hated to mess them up.

I used Jacquard textile paint, but you could use whatever you have. I found the midsize flowers worked the best to create a pattern. They are pretty with all of the paint on them!!

I will be experimenting more, but wanted to get this post written. For the first piece I started with green paint (I mixed blue and yellow together), added yellow and then orange.

This is my favorite piece. I again started with green, and then added magenta. This fabric reminds me of a vintage flower garden.

I see many more of these pieces in my future.

In the category of surprises, I wrote a letter to the woman who lived next door to my sis, who died last July. I was finally getting around to thanking her for being there in Mari's last days. She had bought Mari's property which included her shed. Jim, the power of attorney, told me last year that they had found a painting in the shed. I did not stay long enough to go through all of the shed although I did a quick walk through and found a box of photographs. I mentioned to her that if she still had the painting, I'd love to have it. A week later it arrived on my doorstep. I am so excited to have it home. Mari painted it back in 1964 when she was in high school. It hung in our house until my dad died in 1986. I'm hoping I can clean it up and bit and then we'll hang it in our dining room.

The painting is four feet by two feet of a scene in France painted with oils. I don't remember ever seeing any other painting she did. She had told us back then that her art teacher in high school discouraged her from pursing art. She was pretty upset, but she went on to create with other mediums including cakes.