Bugs and Butterflies Scarf

This is a new scarf I have been working on recently.

I started by choosing my fabric and drawing out the pictures I was going to use. I decided on a nice 90x90cm Habotai 8 silk scarf, because I wanted the colours to be really clean and bright. I also decided to use steam fix paints, as they are better for overpainting.



I decided to use an embroidery hoop to steady the silk while I was doing the gutta, as that meant I didn't need to reach into the middle of the huge scarf.



Here you can see the scarf stretched out on the big frame, with all the outlining completed.



I left this to dry for a while, then came back and started colouring in the background. I decided to use a nice light blue with purple swirls. First I wet the background, then added the blue paint, and then put on the purple swirls.

You will notice the lighter patches round the outlining - this was deliberate so that the colours would stand out more once I painted the pictures.

I left this to dry.



Once it was mostly dry, I started painting in the colours, and ended up with something like this:



This is the finished article. I still have to steam it to set the colours, but I think it's looking pretty good so far...