For those of you who use silk dyes and need to steam set them this is the one of our team members - Lynne from
FantasticPheasant, made her steamer.
Here is what Lynne had to share on our team forum:
I find steaming to be a challenge in the silk painting process. When I
first started using silk dyes I steamed the silk on the stove top with a
vegetable steamer, to my surprise this worked pretty well. I would roll
the silk in newsprint paper then coil it (like a cinnamon bun) then
steam for a couple of hours. The problem with this procedure was that
the silk sometimes got wet and folds would be steam set in the silk.
Since then I've created a vertical steamer. Being the frugal person I
am, I made one instead of spending a lot of money to buy one.
I created the vertical stack with heating/air conditioning pipes with
two groves cut in the top with a metal BBQ skewer placed in the groves
to hang the silk from. I set this in a pot and place the whole thing on
an electric hot plate. I place the pot lid on top of the stack covered
in foil paper to keep the steam in. I still wrap the silk in newsprint
and roll it (like a jelly roll) and hang in the stack. This works
extremely well.
I'd love to hear how others steam their silk!
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Thanks Lynne for sharing your steamer with us today!
How about the rest of you, how do you steam your silk?
