Blakeney Craft Guild

Every year in July I take part in the month long exhibition at Blakeney on the north norfolk coast. There is a lovely mix of crafts from textiles through to pottery, wood, metal and glass. The exhibition is staged by the committee so that all crafts are mixed together which makes you see something different every time you walk round the two rooms. We have visitors that come back year after year and many are already buying their christmas presents! There is usually a demonstration taking place, I always demonstrate my silk painting when I am on stewarding duty. I have included a few pics taken on one of the days that I was there, you can see that the weather was glorious which makes eating lunch outside a real treat. 

Pass the salt please!

One technique that I have always used from the word go is the application of salt to move the paint around the silk to create patterning. You can use any type of salt, the following pics show the results using coarse sea salt. Finer table salt will give less dramatic patterning but will be equally unique. After applying paint the salt must be placed while the paint is still wet but not flooding. You then leave the whole frame to dry naturally making sure that the frame is not disturbed. When dry brush off the salt, fix the silk and then wash to remove all traces of salt.

Frame showing the salt applied to wet paint.

The patterning increases dramatically the longer that the salt is left to work.

The finished silk taken off the frame, salt removed, fixed and washed ready to use.

I used the silk pieces for my silk fronted notebooks.