Silk painting {a non-crafty mother's recommendation!}

So, I thought that I would review my, I mean, my children's fun, with silk painting.

I must confess, I am not the world's best art & craft mother.  These things make mess.  More mess than life already throws at me.  I am no glitter lover.  I get paint out very infrequently.  I mean, life is not less rich by NOT doing these things, right?

I do enjoy these kind of things, when I build up the energy to do them, every other year, but I do NOT do them on a weekly basis.

So, when we were throwing out ideas for HS group, and we were basing it on the theme of "Ancient China", non-crafty mother threw out "silk painting" as a smart idea.  "Yes, that would be great if you did that Caroline", was the reply.  No thought from me about the whys, wherefores or effort involved.

I started to look into it, and was initially having palpitations and regrets...silk frames, at £30 a pop??? Special silks?  YIKES!!!

Ebay came to the rescue, when I realised that you could actually do it FAR more simply, and less expensively, than I initially thought! *phew*

I found that you could get pre-printed pieces of silk, with the pattern, the "gutta outline", already there.  You could also, apparently, just back it with freezer paper, with no need for frames for each child! No special brushes, just "normal" ones.  Better still, the lovely lady, who sold me the items on ebay, sent me an instructional video, on youtube, that she had made to show how to do the painting!! Happy Days!

So, on the day, I simply demonstrated to all the children what they needed to do, and let them get on with it. You only need a little paint, and it spreads very quickly on the silk.  Also, because of the pre-printed outline, even my 3 year old did it, with only a little colour direction from me. ("Erm, maybe NOT the black and brown shades, Elijah, on your DOLPHIN picture?"....I gave up with Abi, and just clenched my jaw, smiled sweetly and said nothing, whilst she painted her sunflowers in techni-colour!!) It was easy to do, effective and as simple or complicated as the child wanted the colouring to be.

Here are the results...

Elijah's (3yo)

(I can't find Abi's just now, but will add it when I find it)

Susie's (6yo)

Daniel (7yo)

Beth (10yo)

Joshua  (11yo)

And, mine!!! (way older than them....)

Beth and Josh then had another try today, with the remaining prints we had left.  They vastly improved in their technique and abilities.  Joshua especially, who loves all things arty. 

Beth, take 2.

Josh, take 2.

You can really see the improvement, I think?

So, for those in the UK, and for others around the world to get the general idea, this is what I bought for the project.

Paints - £14.99 for 8 pot.  They are 30 ml pots, but we used so very little - not even 5ml, maybe?  (for 20 silk prints)

Pre-printed silk  - £2.99 for 5 (there are several different designs, from flowers to animals)

The kind lady sent us freezer paper for free! 

Then, all else we needed was our own brushes! 

Full instructions are on the YouTube video.  I would HIGHLY recommend this as a fun activity for any child, or adult, for that matter!

I plan on getting some plain silk, and using the Gutta outline pens to do our own designs.  SO, hopefully the fun will carry on.  

Hopefully this will inspire even the least-arty, fellow mothers to give it a try!  So grab you supplies, and give it  a whirl.