Artist Studio
Wearable
Art
Walking
Kristen Gibson fell in love
with textiles during her
first college art class and
has been using color as
her choice subject since. A sunny day in
her backyard with a variety of household
items and hardware store gadgets is
all she needs to begin crafting her silk
scarves.
“These scarves are kind of like my sketch
book,” she says. “I study the colors.”
At a very young age she began taking
art classes.
“My mother knew art was where I
would excel,” Gibson explains.
She has been a painter her entire life,
and uses the same approach when it
comes to her silks. She mixes a soy-wax
resist that inhibits the fabric from absorbing
the colored dye into her pigments to
create a paint-like consistency, allowing
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more control over how the color settles
into the fabric.
On a piece of white silk that has been
stretched between two sawhorses, Gibson
stamps the textile with a hand-carved
wooden block coated with the resist, leaving
traces of patterns in the background
of the silk. After the resist dries, Gibson
adds layers of color, letting each layer dry
before beginning the next.
“The interesting thing is getting all
of the different layers and nuances as it
dries,” she says.
She enjoys creating textures on her
scarves by using different items like
Styrofoam or large ice cream salt crystals
to create patterns. The salt is reused multiple
times, absorbing colors and redistributing
them in new ways.
After the process feels finished
— usually after three or four layers have
been completed — the scarf is left to
dry. To set the color, Gibson rolls the silk
in newspaper and foil, and steams it in
her kitchen. After the silks are steamed
they are washed and taken outside to
dry. The final product is ironed before
merchandised as a brilliantly colored
wearable art statement. —Amanda Wager
Allison poter