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Clare Carver - Silk Painter

I took a water colour painting class with my son when he was in middle school. We both loved this medium and continued in the class for a couple of years. Ben moved on to an art high school and I continued on painting for fun when I had the time.

In 2004, I quit my work as a clinical counsellor in Ottawa and moved to Vancouver Island to start a different life. I took art classes at Malaspina University College and learned how to draw! I experimented with charcoal (lovely) and chalk pastel (gruesome) and then went back to watercolour. It's sometimes hard to go back to something when you've tried other things and I found that I wasn't so excited or motivated as previously. In spring of 2008 I went on holiday to Bali and on my last day there I took a course on batik with a water colour artist there...I was hooked!

When I got back to Canada, I started by using the traditional batik method. I melted wax and, with tjanting tools, I drew my picture. My mum, years before, had sent me silk paints and, as I discovered when I eventually found them, yards of silk. Since then, after much research and frustration at the few places that deal with silk painting supplies, I moved on to a water based resist and then to silk dyes which, although more work in that they have to be steam set, are more vibrant than the paints and longer lasting.

The cushion covers can be washed in cold water if necessary and the cushions themselves are 100% polyester and not made with recycled material...not because I disapprove of recycling (quite the opposite) but because of allergies.