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HOT SPRINGS – Ginger Heinzen, the first artist in the “Meet the Artist” series sponsored by Pine Hills Retirement Community, has been painting on various surfaces for a number of years. Only recently, however, in the past four years, has she found her niche painting on silk fabric. “The first time I put paintbrush to silk I was totally seduced,” she said.

Heinzen said her personal journey on the “silk road” began when she was in the second grade in 1952, during a class field trip to a silk factory. “I recall thinking how wonderful it was that the beautiful silk fabric on display came from a worm living on a mulberry bush.” For years she treasured a silk cocoon as a memento of that field trip.

Through the years, Heinzen used many different media, including china painting and decorative painting. It was in the fall of 2004, though, that her mentor, Gertie Asplund taught her the art of painting on the gentle, yet strong shimmering textile. “I had wanted to try silk painting for a long time, and who knew I would find the teacher here in Hot Springs,” she said, reminded of the old adage, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

“Silk is very tactile,” said Heinzen about the fabric stretched across her dining room table, where she creates the one-of-a-kind designs that she calls “Prairie Canvas.” She explained the process, commencing with obtaining the fabrics from various online sources. The already hemmed, stark white pieces arrive in lengths to fit a frame and are attached to the frame by pins that look like tiny forks.

After she designs her subject, she applies a product called “Resist,” a water soluble material that acts as a dam to keep the dye from running onto unwanted sections of the fabric. After the Resist dries, she begins laying down the colors. “To get the flowing water color look I like, I work with two paintbrushes at the same time, one with dye and one with water,” she said. Heinzen uses special dyes that are compatible with silk and wool, but not with other fabrics like cotton or synthetics.

There are techniques she uses to make the pieces “more interesting,” such as throwing table salt onto a section of a piece while it is wet. “As it travels on the silk, it pulls the dye,” she said, and creates a mottled look that reminds one of birds-eye maple. Rock salt and kosher salt can be used as well, for different effects. She also uses rubbing alcohol to make the color diffuse out.

When the piece is complete to her liking, anywhere from three to 20 hours later, Heinzen lets it dry totally and then sets the color one of two ways, in a fixative bath or more economically and ecologically sound way, by steam setting. With the cost of a commercial steamer at $500, Heinzen ingeniously devised her own method using her Wok and a bamboo steamer. “I can do about five scarves at a time,” she said, describing the process of rolling each piece up in muslin, “like a cinnamon roll,” and steaming it to set the colors. After the steaming, she unrolls each piece and, using dish detergent and tap water, rubs it through and through similar to washing hands, one or two times until the water runs clear.

She follows the rinsing by rolling the pieces in a towel and squeezing the moisture out, then ironing it while still damp with the iron on the silk setting, and, voila, the piece is done and ready to be named, priced, and displayed.

Currently, Heinzen’s creations are on display and for sale at Pine Hills through the month of March, or can be purchased through her directly. She has displayed and sold her handiwork through various galleries in the Black Hills, Wyoming, and Nebraska. For more information, contact Heinzen at 745-5681 or email at prairiecanvasgingerheinzen@yahoo.com.