Three reasons why your silk dyes might flow through your gutta lines

I got a call from Penelope a while back who was rather stressed out that her dyes kept flowing OVER the gutta lines on her silk painting, so I shared three possibilities with her for when this might happen:

Video: Three Reasons Why Your Silk Dyes Might Flow Through Your Gutta Lines

On YouTube, there are links in the Description to make it easy to JUMP to different parts of the video.

Here they are here too:

00:00​ — Introduction

00:24​ — 1 — the Gutta line is way too thin so you can hold the silk up to the light before painting to doublecheck if there are any gaps in the line for the silk to bleed through.

00:35​ — 2 — there is too much dye on the paintbrush, which ends up flooding the silk and going over the Gutta line.

00:41​ — 3 — the dyes may have been watered down and flowed over the Gutta line, just like water.

00:52​ — Bonus! The paintbrush may have accidentally touched the silk on the other side of the Gutta

01:21​ — Additiona Solution #1 — make sure Gutta is THICK enough to penetrate the silk

01:41​ — Additiona Solution #2 — after applying Gutta, hold the silk up to the light

02:02​ — Additiona Solution #3 — don’t paint all the way to the Gutta ink

02:32​ — Additiona Solution #4 — don’t water down the silk dyes too much

03:03​ — Annoyed, upset, frustrated – Tip #1 – finish one small section at a time

03:30​ — Annoyed, upset, frustrated – Tip #2 – make notes about what you’ve tried

04:10​ — Free Silk Painting Course

Here are the 3 solutions mentioned in the video:

1. the gutta line is way too thin (hold the silk up to the light before painting, to check if there are any gaps in the line for the silk to bleed through)
2. there is too much dye on the paintbrush which ends up flooding the silk and over the gutta line
3. the dyes may have been watered down and flowed over the gutta line
4. bonus — I also thought of a 4th reason — the paintbrush may have accidentally touched the silk on the OTHER side of the gutta.

It does takes time, patience and practice to perfect this, but don’t worry or be disheartened — in no time at all you’ll be painting like a professional!

Here are the solutions:

1. make sure the gutta (“gootah”) or outliner is thick enough to penetrate the silk (this can be difficult on very thick silk, so take this into consideration, and if necessary turn the stretched silk over and draw a second gutta/outline on the back)
2. before painting the dye onto the silk, hold the silk on the frame up to the light — check to see if you can see any tiny gaps where they dye might sneak through; find some? Fantastic! Now go back over that part of the outline with gutta to prevent the leak from happening
3. don’t paint all the way to the gutta/outline — stop painting about 1″/2.5cm from the line, allow the dye to flow, and judge whether you need to carefully paint a bit more dye onto the design. Judging how quickly the dye flows, and how much it covers the white silk, takes time to learn but is certainly worthwhile when it can prevent the dye flooding over the gutta
4. if dyes are “watered down” too much, the water component tends to flow quickly under and over gutta/outline lines;  if you need to use watered-down dyes, follow the steps in Item 3:  “stop painting about 1″/2.5cm from the line, allow the dye to flow, and judge whether you need to carefully paint a bit more dye onto the design”

If you get annoyed, upset or frustrated:

• finish one small section of your painting (so that no “hard” dye lines will be in the middle of a section!) and go make a tea, coffee or cold drink
• take a break
• do some yoga
• go for a walk
• sit and browse through colourful art magazines and books (I know you’ve got them!) to immerse yourself in the joy of textiles, colour and boost your arty-farty-ness.

When you’re feeling calmer, go back to your Project – make notes in your Silk Project Planner about what happened, and if you tried a solution or two, write them down and detail the outcome, so you’ve got notes to come back to in case this happens again in the future.

Here are some of my wonderful students!!

Remember to continue to have amazing fun while painting on silk and don’t let the little challenges get in the way,

Are you familiar with any of these three reasons why your silk dyes might flow through your gutta lines?

Have you had something similar to this happen to you? I’d love to hear how you dealt with it or solved it, please do:

1. CLICK the pink button on the right to send a VOICEMAIL
2. post a Comment below
3. send an email
4. pop over to the Facebook page
5. or the Youtube Channel — I’m looking forward to hearing more about it.

PS – Are you interested in marketing your art?

Here is the first video in my Art Marketing Course – I thought you might like to have a look 🙂

Click the video to start it playing:

More soon, big hugs!

Teena

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