Nowadays, more & more designers have paid much more attention on silk painting, here is the process other designers have tried.

DESIGN
The first step is to come up with a design. The designer creates a design on a template. And then trace the design on the silk with a pencil.

STRETCH SILK ON FRAME
The silk is stretched on a wooden frame, in the case of a scarf, where it has a hem, it's suspended by elastic & hooks from the frame. This is to keep the silk taut so it can be worked on.

DRAW GUTTA LINES
The type of paint used on silk is runny, like water, so to have definite lines on silk, Gutta, a gluey substance, is used to separate colours. The gutta lines are drawn on the silk along the pencil outlines. Leave this to dry.

PAINT
Mix paints to achieve suitable colours. Preferably use a squirrel hair paint brush, it holds a lot of paint. When the brush touches the silk, the paint runs up to the gutta lines. Leave to dry.

STEAM
3 or 4 scarves can be steamed together. Roll them up separated by clean newsprint, and brown paper on the outside. This is then suspended in a stove pipe, which is set on a steam pot filled with water, on the hob or any electrical hot plate. The top of the stove pipe is covered with news papers, a towel and something heavy to seal it. Steam for 4-5 hours. This process sets the paint in the silk permanently.

RINSE
Leave silk to rest for at least a few hours after steaming. Rinse in cool water to remove any excess paint.

DRY CLEAN
Dry clean to remove the gutta lines.