Accessories Special: Hand painted silk scarves

Text and photos: 
Joanna Read Cotter

I have been an artist my entire life, and discovered silk painting by chance. It’s created so much joy and vibrancy in my life that I’ve made it my mission to share it with the world!

Born and raised on a small-town farm in northern Massachusetts, I’ve had an inherent passion for art, nature and the outdoors my entire life. As a child I would fill journal upon journal with colorful illustrations and stories, and took great delight in entering every art competition I could find. 

I earned my BFA on art scholarship, graduating from The University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2007 with a degree in painting. My thesis show,  “Bringing to Light”, consisted of a series of life-sized charcoal figure drawings inspired by yoga. Shortly after graduating I discovered silk painting, and it’s colored my life with joy and positive energy ever since!

An avid yogini, crossfitter, foodie, and lover of life, I now live in a small farm town in Rehoboth, MA with my husband and three kitties, and I work by day to strengthen nonprofits in Providence, RI. When I’m not at my day job, you’ll most likely find me painting up a storm in my second-floor apartment, where my studio is located. I’ve exhibited in many local shows, and currently sell primarily via my online shop and through custom orders. Arrangements for studio visits can also be made on occasion.   

It all started when I was invited to tour the studio of acclaimed silk painter Judith Goetemann, who I had come to know through my work at the Rockport Art Association.  

One day I ventured over to visit her harbor front gallery, and she asked if I would like to take a peek at her upstairs studio. Climbing the stairs to see hundreds of vibrant, neatly stacked swatches of silk, various sketches and notes pinned caringly to her worktable, with shiny glass jars of dye lining the shelves --- it made my heart flutter, and, seeing how awe-struck I was with this behind-the-scenes glimpse into her work, she recommended a company based in CA, Dharma Trading, where I could get started. 

I ordered a beginner’s silk painting kit from them soon after.

Having previously worked for so long in black and white, I was immediately drawn to the vibrancy of colors in silk painting, and the mesmerizing way that the dyes could spread and travel throughout the fabric as if having a life of their own. The first moment my brush made contact with the shimmering silk awakened something in my soul, and following that day I set to work reading and learning as much as I could find about this magical medium.

I’ll admit that a LOT of sweat and tears went into the learning process – there are a fair amount of technicalities involved in silk painting, both in the actual application of dye as well as in making the dye permanently bond with the silk fibers, and I determinedly struggled my way through learning it all. In 2010 I started a blog,www.joyinmystudio.com, documenting many of my processes and learning experiences, in hopes that it might help others. 

Can you describe the steps you take in designing and creating a piece? I am sure our readers would love to know how silk scarves are manually painted.

That’s a great question! My process is just as important to me as the end result – it’s truly a moving meditation. I always start with white silk, and everything I make is painted freehand, without stencils or tracing, though occasionally I’ll carve my own stamps and use those. I custom blend all of my non-toxic silk dyes, and utliize various nontoxic media and methods to create shapes and patterns.

Some methods, like Serti, require pinpointed concentration, a very meticulous and steady hand, and a LOT of patience waiting for the resist lines to dry completely (otherwise, the lines get flooded, and the image gets lost).

Other methods, like soy wax batik, require fluidity and swift, intuitive, confidently placed brushstrokes. I find they complement each other nicely and are equally therapeutic. Once the painting is complete and the silk has dried completely, I steam it for four hours and later rinse it clean and iron it out.

I recently created a scarf with a GoPro camera mounted to my head and made a 2-part time-lapse video to walk my viewers through the process of how a scarf gets created from start to finish – including all of the work that goes into each piece after the painting is complete. I did this to allow my audience gain a better understanding of how each piece is a unique work of art, and to show them the love and care that goes into the process.  You can view it by clicking here.

My work draws from nature and the subconscious. I’m greatly inspired by surrounding myself in nature, and make it a priority to spend some time appreciating it each day. I have a very active imagination, am fascinated by dreams, and strongly believe in the power of color to promote healing by evoking particular moods and feelings. 

Tell me anything else you would like people to read about you as a designer and your work :)-

I’m also a mixed media artist - my paintings have been exhibited nationally and received recognition. I combine silk painting with pen & ink, wax, and solvent-free oil paints to create semi-realistic paintings primarily of animals I’m fascinated with. You can view some of my paintings here.

From a fashion standpoint, I’ve found that scarves have been a simple and elegant compliment to my low-maintenance lifestyle – and I love that there are so many possibilities for how to style them! My closet pretty much consists of a handful of wrinkle-resistant neutrals that set a blank canvas for my scarves for my corporate day job, and I play more with patterns and texture combinations on the weekends. 

This makes getting dressed in the morning a total breeze… though I’ll admit there are times when I have a really difficult time deciding which scarf to wear!

Also, I’m very grateful for the studio space I have now – but I do dream of one day having my own detached studio filled with natural light – with adequate workspace, a small showroom/gallery area, a loft for teaching art and yoga classes, and an outdoor garden filled with flowers, organic fruits, veggies and herbs, and a couple of beehives. Maybe even beautifully landscaped koi pond, too.. I like to dream big!

Joanna Read Cotter.

Accessories Special: Inmano Felted Scarves

Text and photos: Magdalena Spiewak.

I have always been tinkering with things for as long as I can remember. 

As a kid, I used to play with modeling clay and papier-mâché. My dolls and teddy bears would always wear little caps and socks that I knit or crocheted for them. 

When I grew a little older, I would remodel my ordinary skirts and sneakers into less ordinary ones. Even my poor furniture could not be left alone! I would always repaint it, rework it, repolish it, or simply convert it into something else. It was my mom who encouraged me to be creative and use my imagination, and it was my dad who taught me to love the various materials I work with (he can still make marvelous things out of wood).

I am a gardener by profession. And it seems that flowers have always been important. It is probably the reason why I like Art Nouveau so much. The colors and shapes, and the texture and structure can be very inspiring.

I love to travel, and Tuscany, Italy, is my favorite place on earth. No wonder I am a keen cook

and Italian cuisine is what I cook best. My recipes for pesto and tiramisu are just awesome! 

I hope that I will be able to brush up on my Italian, which is a little rusty.

Now, how do I work? Well, ideas take me by surprise. Continually. I collect them, sometimes take them down on slips of paper, and then work on them chiseling each one patiently. I work with great care and diligence. 

The items I make are best quality. I use pure silk and merino wool, the best materials available. 

I want every item to be original, beautiful, and, last but not least, functional. I have lots of fun, believe me!

I just play it by ear because this is exactly when my best ideas are being born, like my smart outfit for a carnival ball matching the color of my lime-turquoise frames, or the tree painted on a cracked wall in my dining room, or the teddy-bear cake made for my daughter’s birthday. 

I really do not know how it feels to be bored or to hang around doing nothing. 

I am resting while I am working. In total silence.

Magdalena Spiewak - Inmano Shop

Accessories Special: Rudman Felted Art

"About 7 years ago I saw on the Internet a picture of cute shaggy little mouse.

I couldn’t understand how it was made! It wasn’t made with any technique known to me.

It wasn’t sewn, knitted or glued.

I was very curious and I started looking for similar creations and discovered a whole new world of felting."

Irena Rudman has been making felted accessories for years now. Her pieces caught my attention, because they are like wearable paintings. The beautiful colors, the elegant shapes and details in all her accessories give them an almost surreal look, like out of a fantasy story.

Irena now lives in New York and she has been doing crafts and handiwork since her childhood: sewing, knitting, weaving, embroidery, beading and working with wire, macramé, and much more.

“At first I started to make felted toys, with time I began to make all kind of things with wool: flowers, brooches, scarves, bags, heats, shoes, belts and more.

Nowadays I am making only felted scarves. The reason for this is beacuse I love this accessory the most.

Creating scarves allows my imagination to go wild, allows me to be more creative than I would be with any other products.

I have created more than 1000 scarves and each one of them is unique, one of a kind item.

My great inspiration in work is nature.

Most of my ideas come to me while watching animals and plants.

Sometimes I would want to capture the colors of landscape, sometimes it would be the shape of natural objects.

I love working with colors and shades, and I pay significant attention to the texture as well.

The magnificent beauty of nature and the variety of colorful flowers, trees and her creatures are my constant and never-ending source of inspiration.

The power and the smell of sea, the rustling of the forest, birds singing , beauty of sunrises and sunsets - All this lays an indelible imprint on my work and reflected in the color palette.

Felting is a very time consuming process.

In average it takes me about 4 hours to create each scarf.

And that is without counting the dyeing and drying time.

And I have more complicated and time consuming scarves with 6 hours of continuous work, for example this blue butterfly scarf."

Recently Irena has been fascinated with the shibori technique - the Japanese art of dyeing.

Shibori is a Japanese term for several methods of dyeing cloth with a pattern by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, compressing it, or capping. Some of these methods are known in the West as tie-dye.

There is an infinite number of ways one can bind, stitch, fold, twist, or compress cloth for shibori, and each way results in very different patterns. 

Each method is used to achieve a certain result, but each method is also used to work in harmony with the type of cloth used. 

Therefore, the technique used in shibori depends not only on the desired pattern, but the characteristics of the cloth being dyed.

 Also, different techniques can be used in conjunction with one another to achieve even more elaborate results.

In Japan, the earliest known example of cloth dyed with a shibori technique dates from the 8th century; it is among the goods donated by the Emperor Shōmu to the Tōdai-ji in Nara.

Irena revives dying technologies while inventing new ones. She loves inventing designs and special felting techniques.

I’m using a lot of techniques, approaches, professional tweaks and secrets.

She is happy to share her knowledge and skills with students and gives them the opportunity to sell their work in a special section of her online store. You can also check our her website.

Sandra Kemppainen, Irena Rudman; 

Photos: Irena Rudman.

Making a statement: Eva’s Boutique Statement jewelry and more

We are presenting a small shop with unique handmade items: Eva’s Boutique.

Eva, the owner and designer for the shop lives in a historic town in the Western part of Romania, Timisoara. Constantly developing, Timisoara is the city where the already famous and bloody 1989 Revolution to overthrow the communist rule started.

During the long communist rule, where everything was hard to find and life was extremely difficult, her parents started looking for, sometimes repairing and selling beautiful antiques. Being around such unique historical objects have developed a passion for them in Eva and after the revolution, she opened her own boutique in town, selling antiquities for 14 years. Now the shop is rented to other businesses, but some of the small vintage and antique items are available in her online boutique for collectors.

With a strong passion for all that is natural and beautiful, as well as creating clothes and looking for beautiful fabrics, Eva has a huge collection of natural hand dyed silks. 

With the natural silk fabrics, Eva has made many scarves of various sizes and with colorful satin silk fabrics, easy to wear and soft pajamas, for women, as well as for men.

She started with a huge blue turquoise necklace. 

It was the beginning of a constantly growing collection of statement jewelry, combining different stones, colors and shapes into tasteful and stuning pieces.

In the following pages you can get a closer look at some of the designs, compiled from pearls, turquoise, lapis lazuli, natural Baltic amber, jade, moonstone, onyx, agate, coral, genuine Venetian Murano beads and more.

Text: Sandra Kemppainen 

Photography: Eva Rugina, Sandra Rugina