Fun with Silk

I've been having a ton of fun working with steam set french

silk dyes, using some of the techniques graciously taught

to me by my friend Judith.

My Maven buddy Cheryl gave me a bag full of silk she discovered

at the Goodwill, so I've had lots of stuff to experiment with.

where would we be without our friends?

I loved this green one, so I decided it would look great as a diatom.

here it after sewing the heck out of it.

 Then I painted a piece of Reemay in a gentle gradation from white to grey lavender.
I cut most of it out & fused it to the pre quilted silk.

 voila- the scientific name includes arachno&discus  so I guess it's a spider wheel diatom :)

This was one of the first I made, and I made every mistake in the book on it.  plowed ahead anyway!  It bled severely in the steaming, so it ended up with quite a bit of paint on it.  It's inspired by pictures of the endoplasmic reticulum, which is a cell structure that allows certain substances to be transmitted thru it.  Besides it was kind of on a dare from Martha :D

here's a piece of it- the round piece is Reemay/silk the lines below it were quilted and then painted.  Which took a while.  Full view is on the website and facebook.