WIP Friday

I have done a little dyeing since my last entry. I have dyed the screen printed sample from that entry for a mini-project bag, which I am currently applying seed beads to - expect to see the finished article next year some time. The colour combination shown is black viscose dye with a red silk dye, as the colour crosses over a little the red is a touch on the brown side. A little more dyeing is on the cards as I want to try the combination of black viscose / cerise silk and possibly cerise viscose / black silk.

This is another sample which is a test piece for my current C&G project (metre piece) I have stocked up on velvet and will be getting my silk screen out this weekend.

A little bit of screen printing

I have wanted to do some screen printing for years. I bought a kit, I bought a book, but I did nothing because I was too scared. Why scared? well I thought I wouldn't get nice results without doing it the the traditional way with photo emulsion and all that paraphernalia. In a recent college class I was proved wrong. You can get some very good results with the simplest of techniques:

Indirect - paper stencil

then you can reuse the cut outs of the stencil as your design

you can use the stencil in further design work

you can use an acetate stencil which washes out easily and can be reused again:

and then you make a monoprint with the inky stencil:

I then got a bit more confident and tried a direct stencil method by using some screen filler and painted the negative of one of my stencils for a bit of design work for my metre piece:

Then I abandoned the paint and ink and got to the root of why I have wanted to learn about screen printing:

Devoré!

In summary screen printing is here to stay even though it can be messy and smelly (if you are doing devoré) and uses ridiculous amounts of paint/ink/etching fluid. It does produce great results without too much skill required and covers large areas quickly.

An OK photo of my wallhanging

Unfortunately, my hanging has proven to be a bit awkward to photo - it looks much better in the flesh. Ironically it would be easier if it was against a wall instead of the window. This shot was taken using my new phone which has a half decent camera to it. I have some more detail shots like the one below and they were taken with me holding pieces of paper behind so that the eye is drawn in to the detail rather than the scenery outside (which isn't anywhere near as picturesque - unless the herbs are flowering or M is mowing the lawn on a hot day with his shirt off).

It Is Finished

I now realise I never have to do a hanging ever again.