Sunday, June 22, 2008

Screen printing


This weekend, I'm doing a screen printing class. I've done a beginners' class before, also with this tutor, around 3 to 4 tears ago, but at that time, I was making completely different quilts and it didn't really click with me although I love anything that puts colour and design on fabric. The first day was spent learning the basics, and deciding on and making our designs. Then the tutor, Carla, transfers these to a screen and brings them back for the second day.

We get an A3 sized screen to work with, so we can have 1 large design, 2 medium, 4 small or whatever will fit in the space - in my case, 3 of them. The designs we're not using when we screen will be masked off with newspaper and tape, so that only the chosen design gets printed. The black lines will be where the colour comes through the screen.

I found a tree shape on the net and then traced it (with changes) to make my large image. I'm going to print this with paler colours first, slightly moving the screen along and then using a deeper shade to create a "ghosting" effect. The fish I drew from a small photo I saw of one in a quilt in Quilting Arts magazine; and the Maori carving was traced from a photo.

Today we get to do then hands-on stuff! Results later.

3 comments:

Stell said...

nice printing, some times I have to have 2 or 3 goes at something to work out how I can use it in my own work as well. And sock club - this one is full, but its only 3 packages over 3 months - so be tempted - thats only 3 yummy packages of yarn to pet and savour until they become socks.
S

sharon young said...

Hi Shirley
You've got me all excited to go and have a go at screen printing again, I haven't done it since college and I love the process. Your prints are brilliant in your latest post.
Thanks for dropping in on my Farne post, it's turning into an amazingly inspirational trip and I'm so peased to be able to blog about it as it happens, so far.

Unknown said...

I love screen printing! Lucky you!!