First Hatouf must decide on the size of the finished image and sketch out the design to fit these perimeters. The size is limited by the raw silk width, 90-100 cm. Sometimes people send her a piece of fabric on which to create a commissioned painting, requiring that she work within it's perimeters.

If she is recreating an existing design (as with the Turkish miniatures), she enlarges it to her size requirements and plans out her color scheme. When Hatouf creates a design for text from the Holy Qura'n pieces, she contemplates a surah and tries to visualize what people will think and how much they will understand the meaning of what they read.

These photos are included only to demonstrate the process. They are not the paintings of Hatouf Hijazi Tabbaa.

Next, Hatouf will spread her design out on a table and cover her pencil marks with scotch tape, to prevent rubbing off or smearing.

Now Hatouf stretches her silk piece tightly over her design and traces the lines onto the silk with pencil.

The silk must now be placed on a frame and stretched as tight as a drum.

Gutta is a glue-like substance which is used to mask the fabric to keep certain areas from soaking up the paint. Hatouf traces over her pencil lines with gutta, to a mask the thin lines she drew. She fills in the gutta using a plastic applicator with a very fine metal tip. The original gutta is colorless but she mixes pigment with it to create any color she needs. She must be very careful to ensure that each area of color is completely enclosed by the gutta, or the soluble colors will leak out into surrounding areas.

Now soluble colors are carefully painted into the areas outlined with gutta. Hatouf uses soluble colors from Dupont which she dilutes with alcohol or water. Once touched to the fabric, the paints are not removable, so great care must be taken not to spill or apply the wrong color to an area. Since many of her designs are dependent on a repeated pattern, any mistake here would be immediately obvious in the finished piece.

Hatouf lets her finished painting dry for one day before attempting to remove the gutta.

Hatouf uses a machine which takes about three hours to remove the gutta using steam. She wraps her painting in old newspaper and adds just enough water to keep the painting from getting wet.

After the steaming is complete, she just removes and unwraps her piece, and Hatouf has a finished silk painting, ready to frame!