Silk

Silk scarf painting

Luxurious, soft, waving – silk has been a symbol of natural, beautiful, and indulgent. For millennia. It is hard to imagine a fiber having such a rich history.

Legend has it that the process for making silk cloth was first invented by the wife of the Yellow Emperor, Leizu, around the year 2696 BC. The idea for silk first came to Leizu while she was having tea in the imperial gardens. A cocoon fell into her tea and unraveled. She noticed that the cocoon was actually made from a long thread that was both strong and soft. Leizu then discovered how to combine the silk fibers into a thread. She also invented the silk loom that combined the threads into a soft cloth. Soon Leizu had a forest of mulberry trees for the silkworms to feed on and taught the rest of China how to make silk.

Well, we are re-discovering silk almost 5 millennia after…having a bubbly in the ‘royal’ pavilion settled in Canadian woods. 

In our late summer workshop, the luxury of silk was met with the color’s luxury of alcohol inks. For some, scarfs of gentle pastels and unassuming elegance, for others, fashion statements in yellow and purple. For many, a new surface, thin, smooth, soft, wiggly, to create abstract shapes, color designs, and drawn patterns. 

‘Silk Garden’ is our joint work – not the first time we create an art garden!

One, a preconceived design, long petals of large, sunny flower, the other a random creativity, different personalities spilling ink flowers onto silky waves into a colorful, luxurious, and unique garden couture. Or wall art…

In this moment of discovery and creation, we relate, deeply, to Leizu from millennia ago…

Seeing these scarves folded gently into a gift box…soft wrap barely touching the surface, a little gift note, a rose… is beyond satisfying – it is a blissful moment that deserves to be shared.