Handmade Store: Rita Silk Art

Inspired by inner feelings of natural beauty.Every item is unique, hand- painted silk and made with love.

My name is Rita Oakford, I was born in Germany in the town of Wolfsburg (home of the Volkswagen beetle), at the moment I live just outside Lowestoft,UK
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I started silk-painting about 20 years ago when my two sons where about two and three to have some balance. At that time i did it very intensely for some years.

Life always changes and I couldn't do that much anymore having a full-time job as a Chef in a restaurant. Being busy earning money was not easy as a single mother.

In 2009 I married Howerd and moved to England and didn't have to work full-time anymore and there I found myself starting with my passion again.

Every silk scarf or dress is different, and I have no idea how it is going to turn out when I start. First the silk is stretched out on a wooden frame, then I apply patterns in pencil, then with gutta (a water based lining paint), then paint with coloured dyes. Sometimes I use a batik technique where certain areas are protected from the dye by wax. Then there is the salt that makes a marbled effect, and tie-dying or using bottles to restrict the flow of dye to make wonderful abstract images. The patterns “just come to me, without thinking about it” making them swirl and flow on the silk.
I'm interested in using my art as a platform to uplift and inspire others, through the deep inner joy that is cultivated in my painting.

I hope you enjoy my unique hand painted Silks as much as I do.

As Howerd, my number one fan and husband, says: “All of this creative process is done with a stillness and focus that I can see and feel in the finished product – in equal parts concentration, experience and experimentation - for me this is true art.”