Explorations Episode 9: Practicing my Puckering

Explorations Episode 9:  Practicing my Puckering

I'm still trying to get a piece of silk fabric to mimic the luscious, multi-folded look of a band of golden sea foam advancing along the sand.  So I'm practicing my puckering.

To that end, today I tried my luck with lightweight raw silk.  As before, I pre-treated the fabric with GAC 900 before painting it in golden hues.

The fabric is very loosely woven:

...so the GAC 900 should help keep the paint from escaping downward through its loose weave.

Compared to my prior effort, this time I did these things differently:

• I did not use quilt batting underneath the silk
• I sewed random ribbons of foam  instead of uniform rows
• I used specialty threads (metallic, holographic)
• I used decorative stitches (zigzag, others)
• I used darker threads to show depth.

What worked and what didn't:

• The decorative stitches did a good job of showing crumples, especially on the lacy, whiter edges of the foam
• The lighter-colored threads were effective in showing laciness, but were hard to see while working.  The photo below shows some stitches in white thread, very hard to see.

 Nevertheless, the white threads did a good job of mimicking foam.  This photo shows the excellent puckering with the white thread, looking so real.

• The darker threads were too dark and attracted too much attention.  This is especially so where darker threads were used for decorative stitches.

• The lack of quilt batting makes the piece more pliable. 

What to do next:

• Before proceeding to another piece of silk (silk chiffon and silk crepe de chine are already painted and prepared), I'm going to see what will happen if I apply more paint, in various places, to this already-puckered piece.

Why not?  We're enjoying a spirit of experimentation here.