All my products are all made from the very finest of silks,
Mulberry Silk.
I find it to be a wonderful medium to work with. It is woven to be of different thickness and looks. I love the way the colors flow and mix on silk and what that lets me create. The process of silk painting is exciting. It also motivates me to try out different techniques and ideas.
My inspiration is nature, colors, light, and in general what I see and experience in life.
Arts and crafts are a significant part of my life. I have continuously attended art classes as part of my formal and professional education. I also taught arts and crafts.
I make wearable silk art, especially scarves, and also other silk painted items. I paint and dye on a variety of silk fabrics depending on intended style and use.
My scarves and handkerchiefs are all hand hemmed.
Silk is a very strong fabric, yet used as clothing it feels soft and even soothing to the touch, silk clothes are actually warm in cold weather and cool in warm weather.
My wonderful husband supports me in my silk painting venture.
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A Short History of Silk:
The history of silk begins centuries BC in China. For a few thousand years, it only existed in China. However, both the production and use of silk later spread along what is called The Silk Road which is a network of trade routes within Asia, both on land and on the water, leading to The Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.
In China, silk was first used both for clothing and other things like fine paper. Later it became of such value that it was used as payment. Varying lengths of silk cloth became a monetary standard. In the beginning, only members of the imperial family were allowed to wear it. For a thousand years, it was used by the emperor as a diplomatic gift to neighboring countries. It was later used in the same way in the Byzantine economy, the first significant silk weaving center in Europe.
As use and production started to spread out from China over the next hundreds of years, the technology of weaving began to improve. With the rise of the west in the 16th century, the silk industry grew, first in Italy, and then later in Lyon, France. At this time the emperor of France began to religiously persecute the French Protestants, also known as the Huguenots, or French Calvinists, to the point that they left the country by the hundreds of thousands. As they left France behind, they took with them their skills and knowledge of many important crafts – leaving France without them. This had a significant impact on several trades, among them the silk industry.
The countries that welcomed the Huguenots benefitted greatly from their knowledge in many different crafts. Among them was England, which was also looking to develop a silk industry. Although many quality silk workshops started there, the climate didn’t really allow silk production. There were also attempts to start up silk production in what was then the British Colonies of America, as well as in other countries, none of them with any real success.
With the industrial revolution, huge technological progress was made in the textile industry. Back in Lyon, France, there was still a bit of life left in the old silk industry, although no longer as dominant. In 1775, a Lyon textile worker by the name of Basile Bouchon invented a loom that worked using punched cards to partially operate it. Much later in 1805, Joseph-Marie Charles, a silk merchant also from Lyon perfected the loom into what he called The Jacquard Loom, after a family nickname. The Jacquard Loom was the first machine to use punched cards to automatically control a sequence of actions, and is regarded as the first step in the development of modern computer programming.
In the 19th century, the silk production in Europe declined due to silkworm disease, and the invention and rise of other textiles. New textiles were invented, among them the much cheaper artificial silk, also called viscose. The opening of the Suez Canal made it cheaper to import silk from the orient. Japan modernized their silk production, and now they became the leading global producer of silk. But then came WWII, and supplies from Japan were cut off. The world learned to use nylon instead. No more silk stockings, or parachutes, or special threads made of silk. Despite the war, Japan stayed the world’s biggest producer of silk until the 1970’s.
Now China has again become the world’s biggest producer of silk. In general, the demand for silk has declined due to the many new textile materials. The biggest consumers of silk today are India and Japan.
And then there are people like my mother, whose wedding dress was made of thick silk. And who travelled through Thailand and came home with loads of Thai silk, from which she had many beautiful and comfortable dresses and blouses made. She knew what was good!
Credits: Parts of this is condensed from wikipedia.com
