Hawaii’s flora, and in some cases, fauna, have become Debra Dolsberry’s inspiration for Debra.Silks for the past five years.

She has been painting on silk for 17 years and since she moved here from Santa Cruz, Calif., her inspirations have changed for the most part, given the isles’ lush provision for such creative souls.

Her favorite motifs come from plant life, though some of her work features honu (turtles) or koi (carp), for example, though she also enjoys painting peacock feathers in rich hues.

Her primary island motifs include monstera leaves, orchids, hibiscus and anthuriums, but she also has become quite taken with ginkgo, a nonflowering plant revered in Asia for its medicinal and other qualities.

"What I love about it is its lovely, flowing shape," which lends itself to being painted on large spaces allowing her to let loose with curved lines and to build "multiple colors of dye next to one another." The lines are not defined, but are "hazy, giving you a sense of movement," she said.

Her canvases are six different types of silk, including chiffon which is "almost see-through," silky satin charmeuse, crepe de chine and jacquard, to name some.

She mostly paints scarves, "but I occasionally paint a dress or a man’s shirt, and I also do flutter tops," which are akin to ponchos. Hers are offered in two styles, one that is rounded at the bottom and the other, which is squared like the bottom edge of a tablecloth.

"When I paint clothing I also sew it myself, for the most part," she said.

Her more fitted garments are made following a painstakingly complex process of laying out pattern pieces on silk yardage and planning a design to enhance where on the garment the pattern will appear once all the steps are complete.

She understands that women don’t necessarily want focal points of a design to appear in certain areas of the body and works to avoid such fashion don’ts.

One dress could take 13 or more hours, she said. "Six hours of that is painting, and one of that is overhead, which is the washing and drying and prepping for steaming, and five to seven hours goes into the sewing," she said.

Dress prices start at $300, while men’s shirts start at $250, simpler-to-make flutter tops sell for $125 and scarves range from $20 to $80.

Much of her customer base is from elsewhere, given that her scarves and other wearables are sold in shops frequented by tourists. Dolsberry is hip to the fact that not all visitors want a Hawaii-purchased article of clothing that screams news of their Hawaii trip when they wear it back home.

"I do scarves that don’t hit you over the head with ‘I’ve been to Hawaii,’" she said, as well as other items that are more subdued.

For kamaaina, though, since none of that matters, many of her prints are bold and vibrant and command attention, in a good way.

Naturally, painting on silk to achieve the effects Dolsberry has developed over nearly two decades is much more involved than just dipping a brush into dye and dragging it across fabric.

"If you put salt on wet dye, it draws the colors to the salt" and leaves dots, or comet-shapes of various size, depending on the type of salt used, she said.

She saves salts that have absorbed those colors, as well.

If she applies blue-dyed salt "on something purple or red, it leaves a little teeny layer of blue," she said.

Rubbing alcohol also is used in her hand-painting work, as it repels the dye, "so if you put that on your brush and put a stripe on a leaf, it leaves behind a light line and pushes the darker colors to the edge" so that another stripe painted right next to the first will result in a darker line between the brush strokes that resembles veins in the leaf.

In addition to creating one-of-a-kind pieces, "because nothing ever comes out exactly the same," Dolsberry teaches the craft in her home studio in Kailua-Kona.

She’ll teach up to three people in one class, and the $90 fee includes all the supplies they will need for two scarves, as well as lunch. Private lessons are $150.

She and her life-and-business-partner Harold Moodie share the duties of twice-weekly farmers market appearances where they offer both her silken creations and any of the 30 types of fruits they grow on their "little farm" in Kailua-Kona.

Where to buy it
» Kona Rock and Mineral, 75-5744 Alii Drive, Kona
» Journey, at Hilton Waikoloa Village
» Volcano Garden Arts, 19-3834 Old Volcano Road, Volcano
» Ho‘oulu Community Farmers Market
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays
Sheraton Kona Resort at Keauhou Bay
» Phone or email orders
987-5251
debra.silks@gmail.com
www.sites.google.com/site/debrasilks/home

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"Buy Local" runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.