My Aunt Sandy has been a constant source of artistic learning and inspiration for me. When she visited me a couple summers ago in Saint Louis, she brought her silk dying supplies with her and showed me how to do it. The results can be very impressive (here is one fairly successful seller on etsy: Ocean Ave Silks).

The tecnique is very basic- you wet the scarf and apply the dye with a paintbrush. It’s very similar in skill to watercolor. You can achieve some powerful effects by tossing on some salt and alcohol, both of which absorb, bleed, and distort the dye. You can also paint with a resist that keeps the dye from bonding with the fabric- this allows the piece to become more like a watercolor painting with different sections of paint and color, or lines in between separate sections. An example from painter Puteri:

Less impressive (but hey it was my first!) here is mine:

close-up of the salt effect:

Once you have the scarf finished, the rest of the process is pretty time consuming. The dyes we used were heat set. Once dry, we ironed the scarf one ironing board section at a time. After being set, the piece is washable. The colors fade a bit, but it’s really rather pretty that way- more like a watercolor. You can use more vibrant dyes, but the process is much more of a pain in the ass. Here is the finished product:

A project I would love to try again!