The finished paint job, at center. It’s pretty amazing what you can do with a few bottles of vibrant silk paint and a container of rock salt. It’s one of designer Rachel Rose’s favorite techniques—although she currently relies heavily on paint brushes and eye-droppers for creating her stunning silk shirts. Here, she shares the how-tos of the technique—which would also happen make an appropriate grade-school chemistry lesson—just in case you have a couple of silk scarves that could use some DIY-ing.“First, I coat the fabric with dilutant. It spreads the paint around.”“Dark colors are better to use for the salt—light colors don’t get the same effect. This is a blue that I’ve mixed. It has some black and some red in it.“Then you place the rock salt. It takes a little while to work.”“You can see it’s already starting to pull the paint. It’s really cool!”“To finish it, I use this enormous steamer. It sets the paint permanently and also brightens it, brings it out, and saturates it.” To make her Of a Kind tee, Rachel took a more dotty approach. Get the mint-and-navy wonder over here.

Rachel signing our certificates of authenticity in the studio’s entryway.Just recently, Rachel Rose graduated: She went from being a designer who works from home to one with a genuine Red Hook, Brooklyn, workspace. There she transforms stark, white silk tees into attention-grabbing, color-drenched pieces alongside other up-and-coming creators. Here are the people who make up her new office posse.Rebecka Fröberg, a super-charming Sweden native who owns the space and creates teeny-tiny details on her necklaces and earrings using some fierce-looking tools. As she puts it, “Jewelry is so shiny when it’s done, but the process is not pretty. It’s dirty and grimy.”Teresa Kahres, a jeweler who is almost as into enamel as she is silver.Andy Lifschutz, who turns hunks of rock and metal into chunky rings and armor-like necklaces.Annika Jermyn, who makes some of the most amazing teddy bears you’ve every seen using crochet or repurposing button-downs. “I started using my husband’s old shirts that shrunk—or he might’ve grown,” she explains.Monica Ruzansky, a Mexico transplant and jewelry designer who is as new to the space as Rachel is. To see the edition that Rachel made out of her awesome workspace—a mint-and-navy silk shirt—click here.