The most difficult silk painting yet

I now have the photos organized from start to finish...so I figured it was time to share my accomplishments & woes.

It all started with the SCA finally passing a device for me to use as my personal arms. It was a nearly 3 year battle to get it to be something I would love. In the end, the blazon is a little weird, but the LOOK is perfect!

Gules, a catfish tergiant urinant and a bordure wavy Or.

catfish? oh, yeah, I kept drawing it with whiskers...and they wouldn't allow a koi in their euro heraldic rules. I offered to erase the whiskers and just call it "fish", but then mumbled that I'd just draw them back in with my own artistic license after the fact. I even argued the case for carp in euro heraldry. I think that pissed them off...so now I have a catfish. ehh, whatever.

So, then I had to come up with a design for the banner (as I was adamant about having one before estrella). I knew from the beginning how I wanted to draw the fish, but I couldn't figure out how I could make the wavy golden border look appropriate to my asian persona. Then, my lovely man says "why don't you design it like the wave patterns in japanese floating world art? or late Ming dynasty clothing?"

GENIUS!

So, I printed out a great wave pattern that I loved, and then began the many weeks long process of drawing scalloped wave after scalloped wave on my silk. During this time I took the time to order a few new shades of yellows, golds, and orange from Dharma. It was so tedious that my hand could only handle an hour or so of stenciling a night. But, once the border was done, I placed the fish, and then it was time for the stretching and the gutta!

Through this process I had changed my mind about the waves that I wanted to crash up towards the fish. On the left side you'll notice an additional wave...I 86'd that. LOL. I decided that it wasn't necessary after seeing it on one side.

My next step was to start the gutta. I knew the fish would be easy to do, and that it would be best for me to start in the middle anyway.

My original fish design had much smaller fins. But, as it evolved, it became more and more of a butterfly koi - which are my favorite, and I had forgotten that.

Now, the penciling of the waves sucked, but the gutta sucked EQUALLY (if not more).

I let the gutta dry overnight. and rested my sore hands and back from doing all that shtuff. My next step was to start coloring, and everything I've ever read about silk painting says to to the light colors first, and finish with dark colors. So, I started with the fish and outer border, doing all the yellows. Then went back with my gold, and finished with an orange to put accents in the fins and face of the fish. OH! and I bought one container of a brilliant blue - just to give my fish blue eyes - I was very proud of myself.

I was very excited about the results of this phase. I really wanted to give the whole thing a beautiful asian look, as well as more depth and movement than many other banners I've seen.

NOW - for the hard part. The red. I had some challenges with the last 2 banners I did for D and for the pavilion. I always end up with brushmarks when I get to my darkest color. It makes me insane. So, I had an idea that I would do swirled strokes, so that the resulting full color areas might look marbelized, or like they have intentional cloud patterns.

So, while still wet, it looked great. BUT, after going through it's first event that included TONS of rain and sun and such...some of my swirl marks came out:

Those spots really bummed me out. I'm seriously considering re-dieing the red just to somehow reduce the impact of the spots.

But, everything else turned out just how I wanted. My SCA sister in Scottsdale allowed me to use her serger to finish all my edges and cut out my tabs along the bottom. I sewed ribbon to both sides of it so that I would have options for displaying it - more japanese style as it is hung above, or with just a horizontal pole through the top, or with just a vertical pole tied to one side. I like options.

Overall, this was a great project. I really enjoyed doing it. And, again, I learned a TON more about this medium than I previously did.

Now, if I can get the boys to decided on a rough design, maybe I'll make them their fighting banner!