So, why are silk scarves so expensive?
Pure silk is a natural, rare and expensive fabric that is mainly produced in China and India by a method known as sericulture. Silk has been in production in China since between 5,000 and 3,000 BC and didn’t reach India until 140AD. The silk Road as it was known enabled merchants to travel and export the beautiful fabrics which became a luxurious commodity but it also enabled people to smuggle silk worms from China to India. The majority of silk is produced by a particular moth larvea, Bombyx Mori, which produces the silk thread to create it’s cocoon, before morphing into a moth. The cocoons are boiled and the silk is wound onto reels. The reels of fine silk thread is then woven. There are a number of silk weaves available that are very different from each other, Habotai is a very light fabric, Shantung silk is almost paper like with a matt, slubbed surface, Twill is a heavier weight silk with an obvious weave structure and is used by a number of scarf companies. I chose to print on medium weight 100% Silk Crepe de Chine, which has a particularly soft feel against the skin and a beautiful drape.
The fabric is shipped to country in which it will be printed made in to saleable products such as scarves and clothing.
Silk takes dye extremely well, to produce beautiful vibrant colours, and also has often has a beautiful sheen that makes colour glow and reflects light onto the skin.
My scarves are digitally printed in the UK with designs that I have painted by hand and are then digitised to enable them to be printed. Digital printing applies traditional fabric dye to the fabric but is less harmful than traditional printing methods because there is far less wash off of harmful dyes and chemicals into the water system. For me though the digital printing enables me to recreate my artwork with all the tones and gradiants that it contains.I am always thrilled by the quality of the printing when my scarves arrive from the printers.
Where do your designs come from?
I am mainly inspired by the natural world, particularly plants and flowers but I really enjoy travelling and seeing different architecture, art and I am always fascinated by how colour reacts in different light. Blue can look quite cold in English day light but nearer the Mediterranean, it glows.
Unfortunately I can’t capture the magic that enables that to happen but it hugely inspires my work. I love colour, it is very important to me to use colour in my work.
My recent visit to Charleston House has also had a huge impact on my colour ideas because the house has been hand painted by Vanessa Bell who used hand mixed colours. With an artist’s eye she created a colour palette, which works beautifully in English light and in a cottage with low ceilings and small windows. The colours are heavily textured when you see them in real life, it wasn’t something I had appreciated when I had seen photographs. It is the texture that gives the colour life. The garden, is well worth visiting too, the planting is exuberant and full of colour combinations that are staggeringly beautiful.
I love travelling and I try to be disciplined and take drawing materials wherever I go, but I will always have my phone at hand to take hundreds of photo’s. Even if I don’t use those drawings immediately, they become an important resource of inspirational material that I can revisit and use at a later date.
Is a silk scarf good for your hair?
Apparently because silk has super smooth fibres there is less friction on your hair, which causes less frizz and damage to your hair. By all accounts silk and satin are particularly good for people with curly hair. I have thick hair and I have found also that silk hair scrunchies do stay in my hair very well, where as I would have expected the to slide off and I am experiencing less hair breakage that with a normal hair band. Sleeping with a silk scarf on your head or using a silk pillow case is said to protect hair from damage.
