Threads of Life: Creating a Chupah for Rachael and Russell

My daughter Rachael asked me to create a chupah for her upcoming wedding to Russell.

Rather than crafting a quilted chupah which I thought would take a long time and would prove very hot in the summer California sun, I opted to create a chupah using a silk-painting technique.

This was a bit of a stretch for me as the only silk painted piece I had ever done measured 11 inches square and the chupah that I would be making was going to measure nearly 6 feet square.

However, I decided to go ahead with the project.

I drew a design that measured 18" square using wording and design elements that Rachael had requested.

This proved to be a perfect size as I was able to cut the design in quarters (note the registration marks on the pattern above) and take it to my local copy shop. Each piece of the design was enlarged 400% so that each section measured 36" square.

I then taped the four sections together and traced them onto a piece of silk.

After securing the silk to a simple wooden frame that my husband built for me, I applied a water-soluable resist on the lines that I had drawn on the fabric. Note that the elaborate border that I had designed for the chupah was scrapped, as my hands were hurting from squeezing the bottle of resist.

The chuppah in progress over several days. I used Dynaflow paint which can be heat-set with an iron when the project is complete. I also used a few Setasilk colors, but I greatly preferred the Dynaflow paint.