Lorraine Swift's interest in all things artistic began well before she can even remember, and eventually led her to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Southern Illinois University, where she specialized in metalsmithing, but also explored carving, sculpture, drawing and painting. Her adventuresome multi-media explorations continue today as she experiments with silk painting, dyeing and several other artistic endeavors.
Lately, Lorraine's imagination has been captured by the nuances of hand-dyeing and painting on silk; "a delightful medium to work in", she says, "because it is strong, yet light as a butterfly wing, flows smoothly and drapes elegantly with a shimmering brilliance and luxurious inner glow that adds depth and richness to the colored dyes.
How did Lorraine's interest in silk evolve? A few years back, while her husband was vacationing in Europe, he was shown a method of silk painting called the "gutta-serti" technique. He instantly recognized that Lorraine would enjoy this technique, so he bought, and brought home, enough supplies to demonstrate the process to her. It turns out to be one of her favorite techniques in the creation of a painterly piece.
The origins of "gutta serti" are somewhat mysterious, but its enormous appeal is certainly not. Gutta serti is a barrier-resist technique employing the use of a rubbery resist (gutta) drawn by hand in a line from a pointy-tipped squeeze bottle onto the surface of silk stretched taut in a frame. The artist uses this line to delineate a shape or space in which she can control dye flow. The technique can be precise and exacting or loose and flowing depending on the intent of the artist. The process is complete when the silk is steam-set for colorfastness, washed and rinsed to remove excess dye and gutta, resulting in a soft and lustrous silk.
As with so many artistic endeavors, one technique leads to experimenting with another and another and so on. Through experimentation, Lorraine found another pressure-resist fabric dyeing method involving a precise, complex, convoluted tie-dye method that renders intricate, kaleidoscopic patterns of line, color and shape. "In spite of its complexity", Lorraine says "the pressure-resist" process, can be and is a very spontaneous, exciting method to work with.
The term pressure-resist describes the dye barrier - pressure. Clamps, clips, sticks, or any number of things may be utilized to apply this pressure. The fabric is folded or pinched or puckered, then clamped and dyed, resulting in intricate and beautiful patterns. The fiber-reactive dye is set with an alum mordant. After washing the dye and mordant out, the fabric is rinsed and ironed to achieve its original luxurious drape and hand.
So, a pastime begun long ago with crayons and paint-by-number pictures, has evolved into an art career for Lorraine working with silk, paints, dyes, resists and a myriad of other pursuits including carving, sun-printing, sewing, and quilting. Lorraine's scarves may be seen in the Display Cases of the Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery in the Crawfordsville District Public Library through November and December 2006.
