Featured Artist : Mary Gill

My name is Mary Gill, I am a self-taught artist, and I have worked with a variety of surface design techniques for several years. Last year, I retired from college teaching to spend more time producing my artwork. At the moment, I am making stencils that I apply to silk habotai and 100% cotton. I use a Japanese technique involving a paste made of rice flour, rice bran, and calx. I stretch the silk between clamps (harite) and pointed bamboo sticks (shinshi). After the resist is applied and dry, I apply a combination of dyes, including Procion Dyes, Procion H Fibre Reactive Dyes, Jacquard Green Label Silk Colors, sometimes used with Jacquard Water Based Resist and natural dyes. If I use natural dyes, I coat the fabric with soy milk to bond the dye to the fabric.

I over paint and embellish my designs with Setacolor, Lumiere, Decofabric Metallic markers, Make Your Own fabric Markers, acrylic paint, and permanent markers. Some of my paintings are under dyed or tie-dyed before applying the stencil. My work at present is pictorial, ranging in size from multi yard banners to small Silk Stretched Hoops, but I also make one-of-a-kind silk and cotton jackets, and yard goods as well.

The Dharma Trading catalog and website have been a great teacher to me; I learned many techniques from them, and your knowledge about the products is spot on! Thanks.

Mary. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.