More on the silk project

For the most part, I'm loving this project. When the "ocean" section first dried, the color had pooled in very interesting ways around the rock salt. It looked really cool, but left some almost colorless sections where the dye had been pulled away. So I brushed the remainder of the salt off the dried silk, then over-dyed those sections with a slightly different blue so as to make more ripples and currents. Fabulous.

Then I took on the remaining section, which will fall around the shoulders once this becomes a liturgical stole. I was going for kind of an "Easter Dawn" look, so I used very light touches of ochre, salmon and primary yellow. It's beautiful - but I'm also mindful that I've created a fairly dramatic transition. I'm trying to picture this in its finished form and decide whether the change from deep ocean colors to the pale pastels is too much. I could always add more color (possibly framing the cross in the existing pastels, then moving to deeper mauves and such as I fan out), but I don't want to end up with something so bright and colorful as to be distracting. It's supposed to enhance and inspire, not steal the whole show. So I'm contemplating.


Meanwhile, I tried out a different kind of resist to keep the line firm between the water and sky, and also outline the dove. It was middling successful - there's a streak of the yellows coming down into the blues in one part, but I kind of like the effect. And the wings of the dove stayed pristine, but some color leaked into its body. Either way, I plan to use a bronze or copper fabric pen to outline the dove and do some enhancements on the cross. I also have a pearl fabric paint, which I may try out on the dove to get rid of that yellow cast across her belly.

Knitting? None last night. But I did find the perfect unbleached mother of pearl beads to make earrings to match that Lia Sophia necklace my neighbor gave me. They are also just the sort of things that one might borrow to wear with a wedding dress of raw silk - if I knew anyone like that. (No picture yet. You'll just have to trust me.)