Silk Painting with Cold Wax – Teena Hughes Interviews Beginner Student Juanita

Juanita’s first time silk painting with Cold Wax

In this little video I chat with Juanita at her first silk painting lesson.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4R6S2tIsXQ

View on Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/v/R4R6S2tIsXQ

Transcript:

Juanita has learned to mask areas by creating borders using thick brushstrokes of Cold Wax for Silk Dyes. The colours can bleed and merge, and we’ll see what happens.

Silk painting with cold wax, bold white outlines - image

Yellow when merging with hot pink and orange creates amazing results.

Teena‘s been experimenting with hot pink and orange for silk painting for over 10 years.

Juanita also mentions the results of the cold wax which she’s seen on Teena’s finished hand-painted silk cushions, where the white outlines are sharp and crisp.

Finding good books in Australia about how to paint on silk has been difficult for Juanita, although some can be found by American and English silk artists online.

Turquoise merging with yellow makes a stunning lime green, but remember that when the silk has absorbed as much dye as it can, it’s important not to keep adding more dye, as it won’t make the colour darker.

Orange and blue make a muddy but delightful colour, so do allow the colours to merge to see which fabulous results will appear.

I hope you enjoyed this Silk Painting with Cold Wax video tutorial.

Although there are currently no books on cold wax, Teena Hughes is about to publish her first Silk Painting with Cold Wax book – stay tuned!

Silk Student photos of Beginners’ Course

I’m thrilled to provide examples of Silk Student photos for you

One of my online Silk Students – Fiona – has very kindly sent me some photos and I’m thrilled to bits to see her gorgeous results! As a “newbie” Beginner Silk Artist, she’s followed all the lessons, tried the different techniques, has put in a lot of time and effort to learn how to use gutta and outliners, and here are some of the photos:

How to paint on silk - silk student results from Fiona's Beginners' Course - photos

Transcript from photo: Fiona says, “Teena, You make it look so easy, I am in awe. I am looking forward to practicing heaps and learning as I go. I loved the Course, I plan to keep going and keep practicing, I want to get better. I love your method of teaching, you are very clear and teach from the basics which is exactly what I needed.”

Fiona, you’ve done a marvellous job and it’s been a delight to have you on the Course! I look forward to keeping in touch and following your progress – I can see you already have a love of silk painting and that makes my heart sing :-)

If you have silk student photos from being in one of my Courses, and you’d like to share them here on my blog, please do let me know – I’d be thrilled!

Congratulations – a new Silkworm has emerged, and Fiona’s Silk Student photos show us her gorgeous work!

Cheers
Teena

Inspirational Silk Painting from Nature – Book Review

Inspirational Silk Painting from Nature – Today’s Book Review

Inspirational Silk Painting from Nature - Book Review by Teena HughesRenate Henge wrote “Inspirational Silk Painting from Nature” in German in 1988, and it was soon translated into English to become a well-known book for all budding silk artists.

Renate takes us on a journey and talks about finding the inspiration for our painting everywhere we look, and especially in nature. Liberal uses of water on silk paintings can turn them from stark shapes to suggestions of mountains, forests, lakes and more. Creating rain drops on a landscape can be easily achieved using several different techniques.

But be prepared to go with the flow – experiementing with silk painting can bring unexpected results, and so it’s important to have an open mind to allow the possibilities to take shape and form. Another great point made is that it’s absolutely possible to put a silk painting aside and come back to it later to add more dyes, water, other elements to enhance the original painting.

Summary: Inspirational Silk Painting from Nature

Some of the photos are obviously quite old in this 25 year old book, but the concepts and the techniques are still very much in use today. It’s a great little book and one worthy of being in your silk painting library. It might be a bit hard to find, but I did locate a few copies on Amazon:
Click to review / buy from Amazon: Inspirational Silk Painting from Nature >>

Cheers,
Teena

Is it OK to copy images or photos from the internet?

Quick answer: NO! Do not copy images or photos

Is it OK to copy images or photos from the internet?I was having a conversation with a chap this week who told me for his previous job on a magazine he was told to simply copy images or photos from the internet.

I was flabbergasted, as this is not only illegal and a very bad practice, but the owner of the website with the stolen images appearing on it can be sued for extraordinary amounts of money.

After I explained all the ins and outs of why he should never do this again, it made me think about an episode which happened to me – related to silk painting – and I thought I’d share it with you. A couple of years ago I was doing a quick Google search for my OWN images as there was one I couldn’t find on my computer. I’m used to doing this, and as I ran my mouse across a bunch of my photos, I was surprised to see that one image wasn’t NAMED the way I always name mine. So – I clicked on it.

I was taken to a very professional-looking website and was absolutely SHOCKED to see my image being used – to sell a silk painting class – by someone I did not know!!!

I immediately jumped into action and followed my own Checklist of what I do if anything like this happens, and luckily for me the results were good. Here is the very quick professional response from the owner of the website:

Copy images or photos? Don't do it! You might have to pay thousands of dollars in fines

I praise the website owner for acting on this immediately, and for writing a clear and concise apology, for which I was grateful, as well as responding to emails when I discovered what had happened. I replied as follows:

Copy images or photos - response by Teena Hughes

This was a few years ago, but there’s not a week goes by when I don’t hear about someone’s photos or text or content being ‘plagiarised’, ‘stolen’ or ‘re-used’. And with that comes the details of how many of thousands of dollars an unsuspecting website owner has been fined – so be aware.

Please note that if you find yourself in a similar situation and need to contact a website owner of other person, please act professionally and courteously, then it’ll be possible you’ll be treated the same way.

Conclusion on whether to copy images or photos

I’m not saying “Don’t put photos online!”, I’m saying this is the 21st Century and every man (woman) and his dog has a phone (or other device) with a camera as they go about their daily life away from the computer, and ON the computer it’s even easier. If you’re worried about copyright, don’t ever publish anything – anywhere – if you’re in fear of it being stolen.

And please don’t think this is an ‘internet’ problem – it’s not – it’s been around since the dawn of time (well, as soon as cavemen and women started designing their outfits). It’s US who need to be clever, add watermarks our photos, or only publish ones you don’t care so much about. There are plenty of great articles online about protecting the copyright of artists – I suggest you consider all of this, grab a cup of tea or coffee, and do some research. Some links you might find interesting:

A question I’m often asked is, “Has it happened again?” – and my answer is, “Yes, it has, and I’ve dealt with that situation in the same courteous way, with excellent results.”

If you’re interested to know how I deal with this type of plagiarism, feel free to contact me – if there is enough interest, I will host a webinar – let me know below – thanks in advance!

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT – UPDATE 3rd March 2012

Today I visited the Pinterest.com site for the first time to see what all the noise was about, did a quick search for ‘silk painting’, ‘handpainted silk’ and ‘hand painted silk’. Gee – what do you think I found? Yes, a photo of one of my handpainted silk cushion covers had been copied to someone’s computer and uploaded as their own. I jumped into ‘copyright infringement’ mode and found the right place on Pinterest to report the infringement. Unfortunately the onus (responsibility) is on the OWNER of the copyright to provide evidence (seems there’s no way to STOP the theft of internet images), so I did what was required:

  • added two links to pages where my original designs are (my site and Etsy)
  • provided the link for my image on the Pintarest site
  • provided all my contact details
  • and sent of the DMCA form.

I didn’t know what to expect, how long it might take, so you can imagine my surprise and glee when about 30 minutes later I got a notification saying my image had been REMOVED. Yayyyyy! The system worked!

Have you ever wanted to copy images or photos, or did you find someone else had used yours? How did you feel about that? Please feel free to post a comment below.

New Free Membership is launched!

The New Free Membership is launched today

Free Membership - Silk Painting - student showing her silk scarf

Above: a Student with her handpainted silk design

I’m so very proud to advise that I’ve opened the doors to my new Membership level, which is free membership to parts of my silk painting Members’ website.

This is the second Membership Level launched since November 2011, when I opened the first Online Silk Painting 6 Week Membership Course.

At the end of the six weeks of training on how to paint on silk, I can now encourage the Students to sign up for the Free Membership level so they can keep involved with my latest news and new silk painting course updates.

I’m very pleased with the progress of this Membership site, and today I’ve launched 3 Modules inside this new free Membership:

  • Blog
  • Video Tutorials, and
  • Calendar of Events.

I will soon be launching other Modules:

  • Articles
  • Audio Lessons, and
  • Book Reviews & Recommendations.

I look forward to creating a community where other silk artists – new and experienced, can join the conversation and inspire each other.

JOIN NOW!

Cheers

Teena

http://how-to-paint-on-silk.com

Calendar of Events

Calendar of events for silk painting with Teena HughesTeena’s Upcoming Calendar of Events

Oct, Nov, Dec 2012

Silk Painting Workshops are now available in Melbourne, Australia! Woohoo!

Pop over here for more information >>

Paris, France – ooh la la!

The June/July trip to Paris was absolutely fantastic! If you’d like to join me next year in late July/August, that’d be fantastic!

2012 – June & July

Paris, France!

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  1. Textile Retreat – Learn to Paint on Silk in Paris
  2. One Day Silk Painting Workshops in Paris
  3. One Day Textile Tasters (no painting) in Paris
Questions? Post a Comment below – I’d love to chat to you about Paris :-)

Free Silk Painting Video Tutorials 002

Silk painting video tutorials with Teena Hughes of HowToPaintOnSilk.comI love making silk painting video tutorials to share with you – I do hope you enjoy them! You can also view more on Free Silk Painting Video Tutorials 001 >>

CLICK A SMALL VIDEO IMAGE and it will jump to the top of the page, and start playing.  Under each thumbnail image below is a number – this shows how many minutes the silk painting video tutorials run for, so you can work out if you have time to watch now or later :-)

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If you’ve enjoyed my silk painting video tutorials, please do write me a comment below – I love to hear from others who like to paint on silk :-)

Free Silk Painting Video Tutorials 001

Free silk painting video tutorials with Teena HughesI’m so excited to be able to share my silk painting video tutorials with you – I do hope you enjoy them! You can view more on Free Silk Painting Video Tutorials 002 >>

CLICK A SMALL VIDEO IMAGE and it will jump to the top of the page, and start playing.  Under each thumbnail image below is a number – this shows how many minutes the silk painting video tutorials run for, so you can work out if you have time to watch now or later :-)

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If you’ve enjoyed my silk painting video tutorials, please do write me a comment below – I love to hear from others who like to paint on silk :-)

Video Tutorials

Watch my free Video Tutorials

Free Video Tutorials for silk paintingOver the past few years I’ve created all kinds of video tutorials for different elements of silk painting, and I’ve uploaded them to Youtube and other sites.  I believe that sharing information for free is something which we can all do, and I’m pleased to have received so many comments from delightful people around the world. If you’re one of them, “Thank you!!!”

On these two pages you can see the videos I’ve created:

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  1. Video Tutorials #001 >>
  2. Video Tutorials #002 >>
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Can’t see the links? Not a Free Member yet? It’s very quick and easy to join:

[register_free]

How to Create a Heart for your Silk Painting

How to create a heart for silk painting - use as a templateI’ve created a very short video tutorial to show you how to create a heart for your silk painting projects.

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-nu-I2sFrg[/tube]
Video not working? You can also view on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-nu-I2sFrg

In the video I show how to use a triangle shape and a circle or two semi-circle shapes to create a heart. Sketch onto paper or cardboard, cut it out, and then use it as a template for your silk painting projects:

  • create several hearts in different sizes
  • create some hearts wider or longer than others, for variety
  • paint them in different shades of the same colour, or in different colours
  • use for Valentine’s Day, Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversaries, Babies, and special occasions of all kinds.

I’d like share a Silk Painting question I’ve received from a few people …

Q: “I’ve never painted on silk before – is it really possible to learn from videos?”
A: My answer is, “Yes! You can definitely learn from videos!”.
I believe that this is a marvellous way to learn, and it actually has many benefits over a classroom situation:

  • in a classroom, you are one of 8 or 10 people vying for the teacher’s attention; with a video, you can pause and play as many times as you like, until you get it right
  • in a classroom, you generally need to take your own notes while the teacher is talking; with a video, you receive documents to download which include lists of products, step-by-step instructions, checklists etc
  • in a classroom, you have a set time-frame in which to learn, paint, test the techniques, pack up; with a video, you can take as long as you like, and paint in your pyjamas or in a sarong – at midnight, dawn, 5pm – whatever time suits you.

You can go back to your videos/DVD as many times as you like and HEAR the instructions as well as watching them again; in a classroom you don’t have this luxury, if you miss what’s been said, the time has passed.

Next email!!

Stay tuned for my next free lesson on painting on silk! If you have a question or comment, please fill in the form below, or use one of your preferred places to post messages – I’d love to hear from you! Here are some of the other ways to connect with me:

Cheers
Teena