Preparing damask silk

1. Most workshops cut damask silk in length of 2 yards. Carefully cut a small opening at desired length and draw one thread out. Cut the silk along the mark with a pair of scissors. Fold the silk up with its observe side facing out. The observe side of damask silk is the side that has bright pattern and dim background, or the side with the pattern raised.
   
   
2. The supporting paper for the silk must be white, clean, 1-ply rice paper. Cut the paper in length of the silk and roll it up with its right side facing out.
   
   
3. The damask silk need to be dyed if its color is too showy to the artwork to be mounted. Put a cup of clear water to a washing basin. Squeeze the paint for Chinese brush painting out of a tube onto the wall of the basin, and mix it well into water with a brush. Filter the dye with a sieve. Adjust the darkness with water.
   
   

   Silk color	Paint
   pale blue, gray beige coffee pale pink bamboo green manganese blue	cyanine, ink ochre, gamboge ochre, magenta, ink cinnabar cyanine phthalocyanine blue, ink

   
   
4. Spread the silk over mounting table with its observing side facing down. Evenly dye the silk by a soft paste brush, starting from the center and working out to the edges. Stretching the silk tight toward edges by fingers, making sure that both warp and weft threads of the silk are straight. Squeeze the brush dry to take up excessive water from the silk.
   
   
5. Brush a thin coat of semi-thin past over the silk with a clean paste brush in an up and down motion. Check to see if the paste is even. Drag the brush side to side with thin paste over the silk to distribute the paste evenly. Pick up any loose brush hair with a pair of tweezers.
   
   
6. With supporting paper roll in left hand and a coir brush in right hand, align the paper with the silk on the top and the right. Spread the paper over the silk from right to left by the coir brush. Use only light, even pressure. Do not take off the paper even if it is not aligned properly to avoid uneven dyeing.
   
   
   
   
7. Apply thick paste to the edge of supporting paper and place a paper loop on the edge. Lift the supported silk off the mounting table with a helper and glue it onto a mounting board. Let it dry for two days.
   
   
8. Slide a bamboo knife under the paper loop, loosening two edges of the supporting paper, carefully tearing it off.