It is That Time of The Year Again

In 2006 my partner had visited a "Silk Hand Painting Studio" in China on behest of the curator of a museum who also happened to be an artist herself. He was captivated by the beauty of artwork and the amazing skills of the artists, and deeply saddened when he was told that silk hand painting was a dying art since there was no commercial application of hand painted silk.

On his return to the United States he shared the story with me and expressed his desire to somehow save the art form by finding a commercial use to it. We sat down, brainstormed and came to the conclusion that the only way we could help preserve the art form was to start a line of hand painted silk apparel.

 It was a huge undertaking and we had apprehensions: How will the market react to hand painted silk apparel? Will hand painting studios be able to handle the volume? What will be the quality of painting when done on a commercial scale? Will the colors be fast or will they run when washed? We could not know the answers until we practically did it.

There were more brainstorming sessions, long hours of deliberation; Sleepless nights working on what and how, followed by art work, designs, color combinations, sizing specs and charts. Finally, Texere Silk label of hand painted sleepwear, robes and scarves was launched on September 5, 2007 and our sales started right around the first week of December that year.

It is that time of the year again and it has been five years since my partner’s first visit to that desolate, non decrepit hand painting studio in a far flung Chinese town; four years since the launch of Texere Silk. A lot has changed in this time: Texere Silk is a fledgling no more; the desolate, non decrepit hand painting studio is no more a "desolate, non decrepit" studio. It is a vibrant, colorful, lively place full of positive energy that any artist would be proud of; and in that small far flung Chinese town, Hand Painting of Silk is no more a dying art.