Tool of the Trade, Setting up - Part1

Every silk painter has their favorite tools. There are some common elements however. You have to stretch the silk fabric on something,you need something to attach the silk to the frame, you have to have something to prevent colors bleeding into each other (unless you want that), you need some way to put the color on the silk, and you need something to put that color into, a palette of some sort. Here are a few of my favorite tools.

This is PVC pipe,it makes a light weight frame, is readily available from the hardware store or home improvement store, it can be cut in various sizes of your choosing and can be taken apart when finished painting for easy storage. The connectors are 90 degrees with 3 ways to connect the pipe. I find the third hole makes an excellent foot for the frame.

These claw hooks attach the silk to the frame with looped rubber bands that go around both the hook and frame.

The last thing to do, other than put the drawing on the silk to paint, is to stretch the silk fabric onto the frame with the hooks. I usually start with the corners, then the centers,and work the rest in. If the stretched silk has ripples in it, you may need to add more hooks to stretch it in those places. Part 2 will deal with getting the drawing or image to paint onto the silk, using resists, and getting ready to actually paint.