I started painting banners when I realized that the long format of a prehemmed scarf was actually perfect for me. They are narrow enough that I can reach the center easily while squeezing the resist out, resting my arm on the frame, but long enough that my ideas can keep growing and unfolding. I also love how the banner looks hanging in the natural space that occurs next to doorways, implying that the image itself is a type of doorway, a liminal zone.

My first step in making a banner is to sketch out my ideas and make a zone plan for the banner so that I can have the dye flow naturally while wet but ensure that it reaches a border of some type before running outside the frame. This compositional barrier wouldn’t exist if I used a frame that was long enough for the entire scarf to be stretched at once, but that takes a long, dedicated table in space I don’t have and I relish the challenge of making a composition seem natural despite being completed in zones. I also appreciate the opportunity for my ideas to rest and grow with the drying of each zone.

Once all of the zones, sometimes 5 or 6, are completed and dried for at least 24 hours, the entire banner will be rolled carefully into plain newsprint and dangled precariously over a steaming pot of water, inside a metal tube, for up to two hours. After steaming, I off rinse the steamed resist, made of starch, let the banner dry and then iron it before hand stitching in the hanging rods.