It highly depands on the size of the art piece and complexity of the design. Creation of the design includes: development of the original idea, research and study of the chosen style and botanicals, preliminary sketches, full size drawing of the design, final inking of the design, developing of the color sceme, creating and mixing color recipies, gutta drawing of the design on silk. Only after all that I am painting with ink on silk, followed by steaming the finished painting. The entire process for a 90" by 24" painting takes an average of three months.

Jacquard Red Lable dies which I use to paint my art adhear to natural silk extreamly well and very resistant to fading for many years. Nevertheless, natural silk itself is a very delicate fabric, therefore you need to exercise caution when you decide to wash your art piece.

1. Use very mild detergent (like "Synthrapol detergent" or "Dharma professional textile detergent") in cool water.

2. Gently move silk without tearing, stretching or rubbling actions, otherwise you might deform your artpiece.

3. Rinse it well.

4. let water run off the silk and roll your artpiece into a cloth or a towell to dry exess water. Do not twist your silk.

5. Iron it right away while it is still slightly wet through a cloth, on silk setting. If your silk overdried wrinkles will be hard to iron out.

Most of these precautions concern the silk itself, as the dyes most of the time do not present any problems during the cleaning process. The first couple of times you might find traces of color in rinsing water, but it shouldn't be more then traces of color if you don't use harsh detergent.

I do not make identical copies of my work. This way you can be a proud owner of one-of-a-kind art piece. But if you really like some of my designs I will have to make changes in them which would make them uniquely yours. It could be elements of design or color sceme or both.

Yes, I would even suggest you change color of the design you like to make it uniquely yours.

Absolutelly. If you don't find any design that would look good in your color sceme, I will design a new one for you. Just keep in mind that making a new design is a long process with many steps.

The best way is to contact me directly by email.

Serge_Animator@yahoo.com

Yes, I will be glad to share my experience with silk painting in a group or privite setting.