Fall Scarves

I have been researching and reading about making some heavier weight silk scarves for fall. Thankfully I’ve made a few friends in Nashville who have REALLY helped me out. My friends Elizabeth and Allison have been so incredibly helpful. Elizabeth and I got together last Friday and tried our hand at Shibori with Indigo dye. I cut up HUGE pieces of raw silk and dyed them. 

They dried much lighter but we figured out how to fix that the next time we get together to dye.

Then on Sunday night I started experimenting with dyes on raw silk to figure out the colors…

I was SO pleased so I started to paint. The scarf below took a bit longer than I anticipated but I LOVE the result.

Then I kept going today…

I can’t get this kind of precision with Silk Crepe, Crepe de Chine, etc. This is a much thicker silk, almost like cotton, but with a good texture to it. I feel like my sketchbook came to life and I can wear it. This navy one is 6+ feet tall so it took me a while to paint.

I changed my signature, because my name changed! And KW was much easier to write out than Kate Whitley.

I have decided to go in a much more muted monochromatic color palette right now. I am wanting to create more versatile pieces so they can go with anything in your wardrobe. I’ve got one black and white scarf that is always my go to scarf. I was wanting to make more of those for winter. Y’all, I’m really excited about these scarves. I’m going to keep most of them really big to keep you warm. I’m going to have special Holiday prices to move them out of my studio and into your arms.

Next year I’m resolved to be much more on a fashion schedule (I should be working on my spring collection right now HA!). But I’ve had to tell myself that I can only do what I can do today and that has to be enough. Moving my studio has been so challenging for me. Six weeks after moving, I just now feel like I can start working again. There are still boxes and clutter everywhere that drive me crazy but I’m slowly chipping away at the piles day by day. If you are wanting to keep up with whatever it is I’m doing, I post the most on Instagram or Twitter.