Botanical Silk Painting with Charlotte Krone

• Background development – Create complementary backgrounds that enhance the composition, establish atmosphere and support the focal subject without overwhelming the botanical study.
• Watercolour washes – Learn to apply diluted silk paints in transparent layers to achieve luminous colour while preserving the natural lustre of the silk. Explore controlled washes, glazing techniques and the gradual building of colour.
• Fine line work and outlining – Develop precision with controlled brushwork to produce delicate outlines, refine edges and define botanical forms with clarity and accuracy.
• Wet-on-wet painting – Apply colour to damp silk to create soft transitions and controlled diffusion. This technique allows colours to blend naturally and is particularly effective for petals, foliage and atmospheric backgrounds.
• Dry brush techniques – Use a minimally loaded brush to create fine texture, directional marks and subtle tonal changes, ideal for adding veins, surface texture and delicate botanical details.
• Tonal layering and modelling – Build depth and three-dimensional form through successive transparent layers of colour, using light and shadow to create realistic volume and structure.
• Colour theory, tone and hue – Explore colour relationships, temperature, value and saturation to create harmony, contrast and balance. Develop your colour mixing skills while considering the colours found within botanical subjects.
• Expressive mark making – Experiment with different brush marks to introduce movement, energy and character while balancing expressive painting with botanical detail.
• Flocking – Apply coloured textile fibres to selected areas of the silk to introduce soft, velvety texture and additional surface detail.
• Foiling – Incorporate metallic foil to create reflective highlights, contrast and decorative detail within the finished piece.
• Painting and dyeing custom flock fibres – Learn how to hand-paint and dye flock fibres before application, allowing you to create bespoke colours and surface effects that complement your botanical design.

Design Inspiration

This course takes inspiration from a remarkable Dolce & Gabbana couture gown held within the V&A’s collection, where richly layered surfaces, botanical motifs and innovative approaches to embellishment create a striking dialogue between fashion, art and textile tradition.

The gown’s decorative language provides the foundation for exploring the relationship between painted detail and three-dimensional surface texture. Its use of colour, form and botanical imagery demonstrates how a flat painted surface can be transformed to suggest depth, movement and tactility. Students will respond to these ideas through the development of their own botanical compositions on silk, combining traditional approaches with contemporary methods of expression.

The design also draws inspiration from historic decorative arts, particularly the use of appliqué, flocking and metallic embellishment. Flocking, a technique with origins in 17th-century interiors, was traditionally used to evoke the richness of cut velvet and can still be seen within the decorative schemes of historic houses. Reinterpreted within this course, it becomes a delicate and expressive way of introducing raised texture and sculptural detail.

The use of foiling further connects the designs to historical costume embellishment, where metallic surfaces were used to enhance embroidered garments and create visual impact. Examples within the V&A’s collections, including 18th-century men’s waistcoats, demonstrate the enduring appeal of combining embroidery with reflective and decorative surfaces.

Through exploring these historical references alongside contemporary couture, students will develop designs that celebrate the dialogue between past and present, using botanical imagery, colour, texture and surface embellishment to create richly layered textile artworks.