Narcissist Art: Painted Silk for Potent Pageantry: Modern Silk Resist Dying

One of the common methods used to display personal heraldry within the SCA is making banners by resisting and dying lightweight silks. Although there is speculation that this method may have been used in Asia in the Middle Ages, dyed silk banners are not period for Medieval European cultures. However, his method is convenient and creates a hard wearing, lightweight piece that is easy to store and transport. Dyed silk banners float well on a breeze unlike heavy appliqued banners and the method of applying resist and dying your banner is also a faster process. Another consideration that falls in favor of the dyed silk is that it produces banners with a consistent flexible finish that lasts and is not in danger of cracking or peeling as is possible with a more accurate painted banner.

The method of stretching silk in a frame and painting it on both sides is a period practice of 15^th century painters (Outlined in Cennini's Il Libro dell Árte Pg106-107) and this practice is consistent for both painted and dyed banners, however a more period practice would be to paint in egg tempera or oil paints (as were developed in the mid-15^th century). However these materials are subject to wear and cracking through time and excess use as the carrier for the work is flexible, unlike the well preserved panels. Extant examples of painted military banners show extreme wear. Being that the average SCA banner would be pulled out and used on a much more regular basis than their period predecessors, one may find the modern process of dying silk banners more desirable.

What follows is an overview of how to create sturdy silk banners using the resist/dying method.

Materials:

· Silk (10 or 12 Momme Habutai is the best)

· Meter ruler

· Measuring tape

· Pencil and eraser or erasable pen

· Masking tape

· Safety pins

· Rubber bands

· Frame for stretching (Cheap galvanised shelving works well. Just use one side of the structure without shelves, and if need be you can use the supports from the other side to enlarge your frame.)

· Sable paintbrushes large, medium, and fine (Soft bristle)

· One stiff bristle brush

· Paper towels

· Gutta (Available from art or craft stores)

· Silk dye (‘Setasilk’ also available at art and craft stores)

· Water

Drawing Up:

Find a large surface to lay out your silk and tape it down using masking tape. At this point you will want to measure out and rule up the geometric aspects of your device. Don’t worry about your charges yet. They are easiest drawn when your silk is in the frame. Be sure to tape down your silk nice and even, ensuring that it hasn’t pulled more to one side. This will ensure you come out with strait lines.

*Hint* When you are drawing up standards or pennons there is a trick you can use to get an even curve and save fabric and time by painting two standards or pennons at once!

Method: Cut the length of silk to the desired length of your standards/pennons. Measure your silk on the short sides and make six even marks across the width of your silk on both ends. Be sure they are even on both ends and leave about an inch away from the long edges to allow space for safety pins. To get even tapers on your standards, rule from mark 1 on the left side to mark 2 on the right. Then draw a line from 4 left to 3 right and 5 left to 6 right.

This is also a good time to draw up the shape of your tail.

Now it’s time to stretch your silk in the frame. For this we will need safety pins and rubber bands. If you use the galvanized shelving then there will be holes ready for you to loop the rubber bands through, but if you are using a solid frame, you can just as easily slip two rubber bands together and loop them around your frame.

Evenly place safety pins around the perimeter of your silk. If your frame is not large enough to fit your whole piece of silk, (which most of the time it won’t be) feel free to do it in sections.

To stretch silk loop the rubber bands around the safety pins, starting with the corners and progressing evenly across the piece. I recommend placing the corners, then the centers and so on, to ensure an even stretch.

Feel your silk and ensure that it is tightly stretched. If you push down on it should snap back into place. If this does not occur your silk is too loose and you must move your pins until the silk is sufficiently stretched. This is integral to the next step. If your silk is loose The gutta will not penetrate the silk and your dye will not travel as far and will bleed through the lines.

Now you can draw your charges. It’s much easier to draw up detail on stretched silk. Have your charge pre-enlarged to the size you will need. The silk is translucent, so you can trace your image through it. Just place the photocopy or drawing below your silk. Should you be using shelving bracket or any frame that raises the silk, you will need to turn the frame over so the silk faces the drawing, but remember that if you turn your frame over you will need to invert your charge.

*Hint* I recommend using tracing paper and redrawing your charge to size using a bold texter. This way if you need to invert your design, it’s as easy as turning over your drawing.

Applying Resist:

Applying gutta is probably your most fiddly job. Be careful when applying gutta to your silk. It is permanent, so if you make a mistake or smudge it, there’s really no fixing it.

To apply gutta, all you have to do is squeeze it out over your lines. This takes a lot of patience as you don’t want a smudgy line, but you also don’t want your line to be too thin. The way gutta works is it penetrates the fibers of the silk and clogs them, so moisture will not continue running through the lines. So ensure that your line is a sufficient barrier. This will include checking all of your joins between lines and corners to make sure they are all connected.

*Hint* Be sure to begin drawing at the furthest point from where you’re sitting and work towards yourself. It is always tempting to start right in front of you, but you can only do so much before you are leaning your hand precariously over your wet gutta, and smudging becomes immanent!

Allow your gutta to fully dry before moving your frame, moving the silk through the frame or applying the dye. Gutta dries faster depending on the temperature so the old hairdryer trick will come in handy!

Should you smudge your gutta, you can occasionally use your stiff bristle brush and water to scrub the gutta out of your silk. Hold some paper towels on the back to soak up the excess water. This results in more of a grey spot than a wiped black mark.

Remember to gutta in your outline for the shape of the standard too.

Applying Dye:

Once your entire piece has had gutta applied and dry (gutta is not entirely watertight until it is dry) you can start dyeing. Use your soft sable hair brushes to apply dye, as they hold more moisture. When applying dye, don’t paint right next to the line. The dye runs freely through stretched silk, so apply your dye about an inch away from your guttaed line and allow it to seep up to the line. Continue coating your silk. Attempt not to leave any edges of the dye for too long, as they dry and leave a mark. This will occur if you are painting a piece which is larger than your frame. In this case attempt to not stop in the same places on the second coat.

Allow dye to dry between coats and shifting. One coat of dye will give you a light colouring, for vibrant results, two coats is optimal. On the second coat, the dye does not run as readily as the first. I recommend using stiff bristle chisel brushes for coat number two.

Once again this is messy business and spills can occur. Is you spill dye in an area it will begin to spread, so while painting keep your paper towels, water and stiff bristle brush handy. When you spill, quickly place your paper towel on the underside of the stain and get your wet brush scrubbing the dye through the silk and into the paper towel. Be sure to keep adding more water to the brush to ensure you get out as much dye as possible. This is not a perfect fix, there will still be a slight stain and usually an outline of the spill, but it helps.

Finishing off:

· Iron Setting:

Your items painted in Setasilk will need to be set using an iron. Iron on the high cotton setting with no steam. Use a pillow case or sheet that you won’t mind getting dirty to cover your standard as you iron. Iron over the covered standard to set.

· Hemming

You can do this one of two ways. You can hem it by hand and sew a tube hoist using a whip stitch. I don’t recommend machine sewing standards as they are delicate and also fiddly in the machine.

For an easy alternative you can pick up some fray stopper and paint it around your edges before cutting the piece out. For an easy hoist you can machine sew cotton webbing sandwiched around the edge of your chief and sew two or three eyelets into the edge. Thread laces through the eyelets that will tie around your banner pole.

You have now successfully completed a beautiful piece of personal pageantry!