Click on bar to see pattern options

Working within the medium of fiber, I start with white silk and combine surface design processes including dyeing, resist dyeing, printing, discharging, and marbling to create wearable accessories and clothing.  Silk, dyes, and paints, along with their accessory chemicals, arrive at my studio and are my tools in creating the work that you see here before you. 

Predominantly I use the technique of marbling to explore color.  Marbling is a process of floating paint on a thickened water bath, manipulating the paint into a design on the water, and then transferring the completed design from the surface of the water to the surface of the silk.  Marbling is a printing process as a completed design is moved from the water to the silk. I place the silk on the painted design with the help of an assistant, who holds one end of the silk while I hold the other.  We lay the silk on the water from the center out to the ends. The assistant then takes the completed piece to the sink, rinses it, hangs it to dry, and brings me the next piece, while I prepare the next design.  Marbling is a monoprinting process, as only one print is made for each application of paint on the water. I repeat the marbling process a second time with most pieces, a process that is called overmarbling. Overmarbling achieves a depth of color and design not possible in a single layer of colors. 

The above paragraph is a description of what I call the “glamour part” of the marbling process.  Multiple steps are involved in each piece including possible dye treatments, ironing (an average of four times per piece!), and mordanting.  My assistant also does a great deal of ironing.  All sewing is done by myself, with the exception of the ties, which I outsource to a company in the Chicago area.  I send them completed yards of fabric and they return approximately four ties for each yard of fabric.