Choosing White Silk For Painting And Dyeing

Why Blank Silk

White silk is a good ground for painting and dyeing. You can paint your own design onto the cloth to create a unique scarf, dye a white blank a single colour, or tie-dye it into a random pattern. There is a silk base to suit most techniques.

Which Bases To Use

Silk satin, silk twill, silk chiffon and silk habotai are all available as blanks. Light habotai, sometimes called paj, is the traditional painting base because the surface is even and smooth. Heavy 25 momme satin gives a substantial ground when the finished piece needs more body.

What Studios Make From It

Blank silk is dyed and painted into scarves, masks, eye masks, scrunchies and pillowcases. Buying the blank already hemmed means a studio can finish a piece and sell it without a separate sewing step.

Three Common Techniques

Dyeing gives an even single colour across the piece. Tie dyeing binds sections of the cloth so they resist the dye and leave a pattern. Painting applies colour directly with a brush for full control of the design.