a brief moment in silk screening

i felt lucky that i got to learn and try out the silk screening process even though i was in an embroidery projects class!

it's a pretty satisfying technique. i didn't document the entire process because i was IN IT. but here's what i got.

1. make your image. i redrew/traced this one out with technical pens and didn't include the ladder. this was time consuming, but it turned out pretty well.

i did 3 different designs. could explain why this was so time consuming!

2a. take your image to staples and spend lots of money on copies playing around with enlargements.

2b. once you have your image ready, you might have to baby oil the paper to make it more translucent. now your paper smells bad.

you can't tell here, but once oiled, the paper is more like vellum or soft parchment paper.

3. prepare your screen: my instructor was kind enough to put the emulsion stuff on a screen for me the night before, so i never saw that process. but it smells like dark room chemicals. the screen has to dry in a dark place for about an hour.

4. cook your screen: put your image face up under the screen/emulsion on this tanning bed type machine. close the lid and a vacuum will come on and suck all the air out so it makes a light tight seal. then turn on the UV lights with a timer. takes a minute or two.

5. rinse your screen off. the emulsifier that was blocked out by the black parts of the drawing will rinse away to later allow ink to go through. everything else gets baked on to block the ink out. let it dry, tape the edges

6. print! pin down your fabric and cross your fingers that you don't screw it all up. i used some thrift store pillow cases.

7. let it dry. iron to make it permanent. wash, use, sew on it, whatever! i plan on experimenting with some embroidery things on 1-2 of them. i have a matching pillow case in the large size that i might someday do a different drawing on to create a set. 

i know this would make more sense ON an actual bed!

8. realize that i just made pillows into art. just another thing i never thought i'd be doing :-)

printmaking workshop wrap up

i organized & posted a class on dabble.co. even though 5 of the 6 class dates were canceled due to no enrollment, i had one afternoon with 4 guests. 2 were friends and colleagues. it was great to see them! the other ladies were very kind and open to the dabble experience. i really couldn't have asked for a nicer group.

holiday makings pt 1: cards

tis the season where i'm happily distracted with holiday craft and gift making. everything always feels like it gets put on hold in December to make way for XMAS.

a block printing sample i made for a workshop came in handy for my own holiday cards this year.

the owl one ended up being very cooperative to print and i felt up to the challenge of making 50 cards with my bare hands! maybe not surprisingly, the most difficult part was using the computer printer for the text inside. super frustrating.

so what do 50 greeting cards look like?

i just wanted to see many owls in a tree!

Happy "Owlidays!"

printmaking 101

apparently my teacher inclinations aren't going away. so, i spent some time making some samples for a block printing workshop i'm hoping to teach out of my home.

block printing isn't a major expertise of mine, but i've taught it enough to know what helps students get it quickly and feel accomplished when it's over. i really like the idea of teaching people something that is accessible to them in their own homes with just a few new and inexpensive tools and materials.

to create the samples that i thought would be attractive to prospective students, i just went through greeting cards i've received in the past (i save them all!). i picked out a few that i thought i could easily adapt into designs for blocks and drew them out (or traced when i could). putting a bird on it never hurt either!

now, if some people don't want to create their own designs, they can use my designs as their own, adapt them slightly or even print directly off of them if they want.

i really hope people sign up. i'm not sure how to promote the class, so right now i'm just going to cross my fingers and see what happens. once it gets closer to the dates, i'll get more proactive somehow.