Pink Silk

The title Pink Silk may seem strange for this piece, but let me explain. This is a 5x5 for a book project, In the Pink, by Jo Anne Owens. So that's why this piece is pink, pink, pink. Hot pink as a matter of fact. I titled it Pink Silk, because this is actually made from approximately one inch strips of silk fabric. Yes indeed, I pulled out an old silk blouse that didn't fit me anymore, and cut it up to use in my art. This blouse was made out of teal smooth silk. After I cut the strips, I frayed the edges, then Mod Podged them down onto my usual -- frozen pizza cardboard -- in different directions, with some overlapping going on. I tried to glue them on with lots of wrinkling for good texture. I let it dry overnight, and when dry, the surface almost felt like plastic.

Then I did the painting with Anita's Acrylic Paint, first fuschia, then baby pink rubbed over the elevated parts. After painting, I glued down pink cheese cloth, dyed in beet juice, on the right side. (Although it's kind of hard to tell it's cheese cloth in this photo, but up close it's easy to tell.) The vertical pieces on the cheese cloth are painted large, flat toothpicks, and the horizontal pieces are seeds from my yard, painted with the baby pink. The heart was punched out of a paint sample, then painted fuschia. Underneath it is a pink feather, that got rather segmented when I applied gel medium, but I decided to leave it that way.

The most amazing part to me about this piece is how using the silk came out, and provided such great, different looking texture. This is with using one inch strips. Next time I think I'll cut one large piece, and scrunch it up as I glue it on, and see what that looks like. It might look very similar to this piece....or maybe not. Maybe it will have a different effect. Well, one thing is for sure. Experimentation is FUN!