The seeds for this project were planted about 20 years ago when I first started hand painting on silk: I painted scarves, pillows, jackets, and wall hangings.
Here's a photo of me in 1993 - I'm in my kitchen during Santa Cruz County Open Studio, preparing to do a silk painting demonstration for the visitors.
At the time, hand applying the gutta (the glue-like substance used to make the design lines on the silk) with a small metal tipped applicator bottle was the most time consuming portion of transferring my designs onto the silk fabrics. I termed it the "drama of the fine line", since, if the gutta line wasn't thick enough, the fabric dyes would just run through the line. And, if they were too thick, it took away from the delicacy of the design. This process severely limited the types of designs I could produce.
I dreamed of converting an HP plotter to do this function for me: fill the plotter with gutta, program the printer to print the gutta lines on the silk, but this never came to fruition.
Fast-forward 20+ years and voila! we now have digital printing techniques coupled with fabric preparation techniques that reproduce photographic quality imagery onto a variety of fabrics using a variety of inks and dyes that are fashion industry specific. Colors and details are reproduced with photographic accuracy, resulting in beautiful, crisp designs.
I, for one, am thrilled to be able to bring my intricate designs into the fashion world, using these technologies, and hope that you enjoy my collection of silk scarves.