Big Comeback.

So yeah, if you ever wonder if it's possible to forget about something for 3 years... Yeah, that's what happened here!

I got swamped with social media tasks and kinda drifted away from blogging!

The good news is I've got A TON of new scarves to share with you!

 

Forget Me Not silk scarf

Oh, this is one of my all-time favorites! It's big (180 by 60 centimeters) and soooo bluueeeeeee—it's just blue in a sea of blue-ness. Blue-madness!

 

Soft and see-through, a 100% natural silk

Front and back of the scarf are the same: the beauty of hand painted silk!

Close up for the Forget Me Not scarf: flowers are really big!

See how delicate and light the Habotai silk is!

The only issue I've got with this scarf, is that it takes at least 3 days to paint... while I can't move the easel from my table, it's too big.

And here's the answer to your question: why I am back today?

Well, the next Forget Me Not scarf is on my table, drying. And I'm waiting for an opportunity to paint the details once the paints are dry enough to work with!

The Forget Me Not scarf can be order on Etsy - at my MinkuLUL silk scarf shop here!

Tit Birds scarfs - which one do YOU like?

Painting Birds. 

I love painting birds, and tits are so adorable that I can not stop working on tit-themed scarfs!
I'm testing new ways of painting now, trying to decide if I like them better with white outline or with additional black lineart.

Tit Birds With Red Berries neck scarf 

This one is slim, with fiery red berries. I re-painted it recently, so I have some new photos. 

Tit Birds & Berries on Etsy - this one is ready to be shipped right now!

Tit Birds & Berries on Etsy - the 160 x 28 cm size scarf, slim and long.

Tit Birds On Blue

Re-painted last month. I like how subtle the color set is.

Tit Birds on blue - ready to be shipped on ETSY

Tit Birds in Blue - subtle and blue, very very blue :)

Tit Birds On White (my favorite!)

It took a lot of work, to paint black outline on such a bright background (very tiny and very dry brush painted extremely slowly) but the effect is almost comic-like.

Tit Birds In Snow on Etsy - my favorite!

Silky touch: lightweight and semi - transparent. Tit Birds In Snow

How do you like my designs?
Let me know in the comment!

As always, you can find all of my hand painted silk scarf on MinkuLUL Etsy shop HERE!

Here be Dragons! On silk!

Dragons on silk scarfs

Hello everybody! Today, I wanted to share with you my designs with dragons. I worked on the series for some time now and I must say painting mystical creatures gives me a lot of joy... but for some reason dragons seem to be the most popular among my customers.

Silk scarf yin yang Dragons 

A lot of details! A lot of scales. I really like the color set, and how it changes depending on the time of the day and type of light. Sometimes it looks blue - red, sometimes turquoise - orange. Funny! Almost like the dragons were actually alive!

Silk scarf Dragons on ETSY

Silk scarf Dragons on ETSY

Dragons In Love

This one is ready to go! Two dragons facing each other with two types of wings: one is angelic and the other is demonic. How do you like it?

Dragons In Love silk scarf on ETSY

Dragons In Love silk scarf on ETSY

Water Dragon silk scarf

How about this color set? Dragons should be green, right?  I rarely paint on square scarf, but this feel like a perfect fit, does it not?

Water Dragon square scarf on ETSY

Water Dragon square scarf on ETSY

Dragon Scales silk scarf

Red again! I recently purchased most vivid red paint so I'm on a red-painting spree! I was planning to paint scales for a long time and this seems to be the perfect color for it!

Dragon Scales silk scarf on ETSY

Dragon scales silk scarf on ETSY

By the way, do you know there's a legend about a dragon that lived in a cave under the kings castle in my hometown? Really!
You can visit the cave now (it's officially called the Dragon Cave) and you can see the monument of the dragon... which actually breaths fire! For some time there was a special number you could sent a SMS to from your phone to make him breathe fire and it costed like 1 Euro. It was crazy fun!

Dancing Dragons on silk scarf so you can take them anywhere you go!

The Dancing Dragons silk scarf

This silk scarf was painted... well, on a whim, really! I just wanted so badly to make it and the design finally became crystal clear in my mind, so I took a week of my normal chores and painted it!

Dancing Dragons silk scarf on ETSY!

That's me: Minkulul, with the Dancing Dragons silk scarf!

Here we go with some more pictures. Those were taken at my studio, so inside. Can you tell how silk shimmers and how it can change its tones and shades? This is so amazing to see this transformation: depend on the light type, you have a bit different scarf every time!

Hand painted silk scarf Dragon Dance is on Etsy now!

Dancing Dragons silk scarf is HERE

And here we have some pictures from the painting process. As I said, this one took me A WEEK!Why? Well, can you see all the scales on both dragons? Yay, it was almost like meditation with a brush!

Painting the Dancing Dragon silk scarf

The Dancing Dragon - painting outlines for the design on silk scarf

Would you like to know the technique that this scarf was painted in? Please check my post about silk painting the contours after using colorless gutta - the "stained glass" technique.

Stained glass on silk - silk painting technique

Hummingbird silk scarf

I am so proud of a new scarf I have painted recently! It is called Hummingbirds and it was designed as a 'stained glass' window!

Silk scarf 'Hummingbird' on ETSY

Close up of the hummingbirds on the scarf!

Silk scarf Hummingbirds with Hibiscus

If you are interested in how was it painted, take a look at some of my WIP photos!

Painting process and the Stained Glass technique

First - the design!
As stained glass windows are always build of smaller panels to make them more durable, I decide to divide my scarf in two squares and one rectangle (in the middle).
I decided to paint hummingbirds with pink hibiscus flowers on square panels. I had to make the colibri quite because I wanted them to stand out as accents among flowers.
The panel in the middle with hibiscus flowers I decided to paint life - size, to add variations to the design.

Blue background and purple - turquoise hummingbird.

Pink Hibiscus flowers and black outline.

Adding black outline after washing out the gutta.

Painting process taking a bit! All the lines have to be painted.

Painted scarf! Hummingbirs, hibiscus flowers and black outline for the stained glass effect!

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!

Pride and Prejudice silk scarf

The Pride and Prejudice silk scarf is ready!

 Pride and Prejudice silk scarf on ETSY

Yay, I have painted both Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy! I am pleased with the end result so I hope you will like it too.

The idea

I decided to paint Lizzy and Darcy on both ends of the scarf, so when you put the scarves around you, they meet!

Pride and Prejudice scarves on ETSY

I was trying to get a watercolor style and feel to the painting, as watercolors was the medium of choice of the era. Still, I know none of the Bennet sister painted :P

The design

I have painted them in cameo style, profiles decorated with flowers (Lizzy) and leafs (Darcy).

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy on a scarf - find it on ETSY

She is bright and lively, hence greens and colors of spring.
He is calm and quiet, therefore blues and dark greens.
In the middle of the scarf there is a title 'Pride and Prejudice' painted with fancy letters and multi-colored background.

Painting

I must say it took some time! I really enjoyed this work, but I have stayed up too late and I was to tired the next day... still, it was worth it! Thankfully, we have coffee.
It was a two day process, but on the second day I only did the 'outlines' - contours to the characters. If you like to see my process, check out this entry on painting the Peacock scarf.

Poppies and Firebird: from design to painted scarves!

The Poppies and Firebird silk scarves

My latest creation in MinkuLUL shop, the commissioned scarf size 34 x 34 inches.

Silk scarves Poppies and Firebird on ETSY

I have painted it with a Setasilk silk paints, to get the most vivid red there is! (I think this red is even more intense that the one I have from acrylic... not to mention watercolors... this is THE RED!!) 

The beginning... a design!

I had a pleasure to work with a great lady from US, who wanted a red and gold scarf with flowers and Art Nouveau touch. We e-mailed a bit about the size and ideas, then I created 3 pictures for her to choose from.

 We e-mailed a bit more and so the final version was created!

I am drawing the designs with colored pencils... taking pictures with my phone did a nasty number on the quality and colors... thankfully I have my camera back!

The silk painting - all the fun!

While painting - Setasilk silk paints are amazing!

Silk scarf Poppies and Firebird

Silk scarf Poppies and Firebird

Silk scarf Poppies and Firebird

I am wondering, is "scarf" rectangle and long, and "scarves" square?
Hm.... or just two words for the same thing?