Tit Birds scarf hand painted for the Christmas!

The Tit Birds scarf

Don't you just love them? They are like little fluttering ray of sunshine on a gloomy winter day.
I was asked to paint a Tit Birds scarf and here's how it turned out!

Tit Birds silk scarf by MinkuLUL

I added some red berries to spice up the color set for this scarves. I like all blue scarfs, but a dash of yellow and a bit of red makes it pop (I hope!)

Blue Tits scarf made of silk by MinkuLUL

Tit scarf: yellow and red on blue!

This is a slim scarf: 160 cm in lenght but only 24 cm wide. It's a perfect neck scarf.

Neck scarf: slim and sleek! Silk for all seasons on MinkuLUL

 

I hope you will like this one! I love working with other people on new designs, so if you have an idea for a scarf, just let me know in a comment!

Painting in Purple - lots of scarfs!

My favorite color

I adore all things in shades of purple, lila and violet... it is a shame that this particular color won't go well with my complexion.
If I could I would wear only purple ;) but hey, what can you do? (I am an Real Autumn gilr, have you heard about 4 Season Color Analysis? That's really helpful when trying to find right color set for your clothes)
Still, I love painting purple scarfs and as lilacs are my fav flowers, there have been A LOT of Lilac scarves at my workshop lately!

Purple scarfs

I call this one "Synthetic Lilac" as this one has less details drawn with white contour but lots of play with shades and splashes of water.

Silk scarf Lilac hand painted and ready to go on ETSY

Hand painted silk scarf Lilacs on ETSY

Lilac silk scarf ready to go! on ETSY

 This one is called "Bouquet of Lilacs", flowers are tied with white ribbon. It's a neck scarf (128 x 28 cm) and painted in very dark purple - eggplant color set.

Silk scarf Bouquet of Lilacs with white ribbons on ETSY

Bouquet of Lilacs silk scarf

And finally the Wisteria scarf, if you are overwhelmed with Lilac (can you have enough of those? I doubt it!) Painted on Habotai Medium natural silk, which drapes gorgeously and is not transparent.

Wisteria silk scarf hand painted and then... drawn! On ETSY here!

Bright green with purple and white makes the Wisteria scarf!

The painting process of Lilac scarf

As I really like the pics of WIP (Work In Progress) here are some photos! Took with phone camera, so the colors are a bit off, moreover it was photographed at night... so beware!

Painting the Lilac scarf - on Etsy now

Painting the Lilac scarf - on Etsy now

Painting the Lilac scarf - on Etsy now

Painting the Lilac scarf - on Etsy now

If you are wondering which one of 4 Season Colors are you, here's a great page to do the analysis by yourself! Colormepretty!

1000 sales on ETSY! YAY

My Etsy shop just got the 1000th sale! 

Thank you so much! Thank you for all your kind words, feedback and orders!

Fox scarf and getting out of your comfort zone - art style!

Comfort zone sometimes has to be broken! 

I had lovely summer, painting in the garden, doing what I love the most: watercolor style, Art Nouveau style, lots of flowers.

 Yay, painted the Iris scarf in the garden in the country side!

Here we go!

Now, back in town, I decided it's time to do something spontaneous and different!

It's essential for painters to push their limits, experiment and find new ways for expressing themselves. I did that painting a Fox scarf.

Silk scarf Fox on ETSY, find it HERE!

This design is quite unusual for me.
First, the color set: red, crimson, a bit of orange and gray.
Then, the composition: I tried to simplify Japanese landscape; no ornaments, no - as my art teacher used to say - no unnecessary "chatter".

 Fox scarf - front and back

Simple lines, two foxes and strong colors - that was the trick! Hope you will like it!

Oh, btw. if you are experiencing an art-block, there's no better way to get out of it, than get out of the comfort zone with your creations!

If you can hand paint silk... why not hand drawn on it? New scarfs!

Still here and kickin'!

Oh, so much time has passed since the last entry!
So much have happened!

Our family is +1 now!

My sweet boy does not like to give me a lot of time for painting ;) go figure! Still, I am working!


As Monty Phyton would say

... and now for something completely different!

Hand drawn silk scarf Angelic Wings

This Wing scarf is hand drawn on a white natural silk called Habotai, non transparent and a bit glossy. It is done with a special pen filled with silk paint!

 In a close-up you can see how detailed the Angel Wings scarf is! oh it was A LOT of work, a week if I am not mistaken. Totally worth it, tho! 

With hand drawn silk the important thing is to remember, there will be a front side and a back side, so the design must make sense on both sides. You can see it is a bit lighter on the back side, but all the nessesery lines and details are still visible!

And finally, a small teaser for the next post, with hand painted and then hand drawn silk scarf Sunflowers. Here they are, ready to be packed and shipped!

 Sunflowers silk scarf and Angel Wings silk scarf

Stocking up... and a sudden lack of paint

Stocking up

Yes, recently I had some more free time from painting regular orders, so instead taking time off (who needs to rest?) I decided to paint some scarfs as a smart way of stocking up for the fall season.

Currently I have 20 ready to go scarfs at my Etsy shop, YAY

Here are all of my ready to go silk scarfs

... and a sudden lack of paint

 Uhhh this was an upsetting discovery!

 I do not buy all of the colors needed in painting, I mix my own colors from primary (yellow, red, blue and black) so one fine morning I was left with no more blue... which means no blue, green, violet... ahhh! no way to paint!

So I am taking my time of eventually :) 

Have a great summer - time!

 

WIP - some pictures on silk painting from my studio!

So the spring time is almost here and I feel such a rush of positive energy! :D I love the fact that the sun is finnaly shinning through the window in my studio!

Soo... here's some pictures that I took recently while working...

 Finishing the Peacock scarf with blue outline!

 

 Bunny silk scarf white painting.

The Purple Sky White Tree and Lilac scarfs drying after painting.

Peacock hand painted silk scarf - the second day of painting!

The Peacock scarf is one of my most time consuming scarfs, but I really love painting it :) The yellow - blue color set is my favorite.

Here's the second day of painting! Enjoy!

The scarf is placed on the stencil after the gutta was removed. In the background you can see also my 'White Tree of Gondor' hand painted silk scarf. 

 

You can see that the peacock's head is once again protected by a new layer of gutta, to leave it's outline white. All the other white lines will be painted blue or yellow!

 

 Some of the lines are already painted! Can you see the difference? Adding an opposite color (turquoise) to the gold color set I try to make them 'sparkle' and vibrant!

  The close-up. Oh, this is TIMECONSUMING! Thank's God for the radio...!

  And now for the blue half of the scarf, it get's yellow outline.

If you wish to see the previous stages for painting the Peacock scarf go to my blog post here!

Peacock scarf - Day 1 of painting!

The Peacock scarf is one of my favorite, but it takes more than a day to paint! :)
Here's a sneak - peak on my creative process, Day 1. Enjoy!

Applying gutta - has to be precise! After washing, gutta leaves a white contour, I will paint the blue - gold lineart tomorrow.

 Painting blue feathers!

 .... lots and lots of blue feathers!

Here comes the golden - brown colors. Blues with gold makes my favorite color set!

 A lot of details! This literrally takes the whole day :) 

Yay, the painting is done for today! 

Stay tuned for the next entry: the colorful lineart!

Peacock scarf and... how to pimp up your close up?

Peacock silk scarves with lighting effect - thank you Photogramio! 

Recently, I have found a fantastic webpage called Photogramio  for editing photos. It's user panel is very cool, try it! :) it looks like a old - fasioned photo studio and it add effect similar to Instagram.

I had a great time playing with it and now I wanted to share with you one of the photos of my ready-to-go Peacock scarf.

 Edited close-up of  Peacock scarves and the un-edited photo.

The picture was first re-sized in GIMP (from 350dpi to 72dpi which is a standard monitor resolution). Then the picture was brightened - up a little with contrast and brightness options.

The Photogramio was used to create the lighting lens effect. I like it as it makes the picture more umm... magical -I suppose - is the word I am looking for ;)

Please let me know what do you think! 

I am testing this edited picture now as a front photo for this ready to go silk scarves. I am very curious will it affect Peacock scarves popularity? 

500 + sales on Etsy THANK YOU!!

It was a few days ago, but due to some health issues I can share this great news with you today!

500 sales on MinkuLUL.etsy.com

It was crazy two years, filled with hard work and lots and lots of fun! I simply love painting so this job is a dream - come - true for me :) 

I am so thankful to all my customers for their trust and support. THANK YOU!
I am so grateful to Etsy for giving me and so many many other artists and craters a wonderful opportunity for growing. 

Fire and ice... on a silk scarfs!

Here's two twin silk scarfs from my collection. Fire and ice, ombre red and ombre blue, both with white swirls representing dancing of flames or dancing of frost. I really hope you will like it!

Hand painted silk scarf - FIRE SCARF 

 

Hand painted silk scarf - FROST SCARF

 

As you can see both designs have the same general idea, it's a quite simple idea but lots and lots of painting. 

 

I am really proud of the ombre effect, it lets you to choose the exact tone of color that will be complementing your outfit. You can wear it as a dark or very bright scarf - whichever suits you more at the moment.

 

The Frost scarf (or Snow scarf) was created first, this late winter. The Fire scarf (Flame scarf) was created as a custom request for a very nice person from RPA.

Ready to go scarfs - 21th of July

I love creating new designs and new scarfs, but sometimes I need to slow a bit in creating process and just practice my manual skills.



I took this week of designing and focused on painting! This gives me such a joy :)

Here are some of this week READY TO GO silk scarfs on Etsy:

Hand painted silk scarf 'Peacock'

Hand painted silk scarf 'Trees in Blue'

Hand painted silk scarf 'Rohan Horses'

Hand painted silk scarf 'Violet Sky White Tree'

Hand painted silk scarf 'Celtic Wolfs''

If you find something that you especially like, rest assured that the scarf will be sent to you in 24 hours :) 

Most of my scarfs are still made to order, which takes me from 3 to 5 days, depending on the complicity of the design. 

If you wish me to design something special for you, let me know!

Free world - wide shippign everyone!

I am back after very intense six months... there were weddings, there was A LOT of work and painting... oh very good time indeed!

I will add some of my new works here now, just to make you wanna visit my shop on ETSY with 75 silk scarfs!! Yesssss 75... when did it happened?

Free world wide shipping till 20th of July. yeah, it's called Christmas in July on ETSY

And here's the newest scarf 'Poppies' - hand painted silk scarf with red and pink poppies.

This 'Poppies' scarf was painted as a gift for my friend... she was going to a great music festival (classical music in Wieliczka city in Poland) so I am very honored that she had chosen this scarf as a part of her outfit. She did inspire me to paint poppies one more time. I am sooo grateful for her inspiration (and for the yummiest raspberries she brought from her garden).