Part 2 Screen printing reflections

I have written these thoughts as they have occurred to me.  This has been such a new, busy experience that I didn't want to get to the end of Part 2 and find I'd forgotten things.

I began Part 2 from the very, very basics.  I knew nothing of the screen printing process and it took me ages to decide what sort of ink/paint to buy. I was very apprehensive.

I chose Selectacine dyes from George Weil but then bought some Procion.  This offered two different ways of working. The Selectacine sits on the fabric and the Procion goes into it.

I'm getting better at applying the paint although I sometimes still get it too thick.

Over the time I've been working my confidence has increased and I've produced some work I'm pleased with particularly the vilene prints and the Corn Exchange roof.

Part 2 has been about developing technique and getting to know the materials and I've felt inclined to play around and get some experience.  

Each piece I've done has presented some new problems to solve; there's been little time for consolidation.

My attempt at printing striped tea towels with too complex a design was a great learning experience. I often find I learn more from the failures than I do the successes.

Although my grids and stripes bit the dust my vilene print tea towels were much more successful and I enjoyed doing them.

The discharge printing was less to my liking but I can see that it is a useful tool to have in the kit bag.

I experimented with deconstructed screen printing and was amazed by it.  If time permits I'd like to try this again.

Sometimes I think that having no preconceptions is liberating; if you don't know the rules you aren't constrained by them.

The successful use of these techniques in the production of items depends very much on the process being predictable and repeatable.  To date I haven't the experience to know what the outcome might be.  I need lots more practise.

I feel I've come a long way in Part 2 and I've not finished yet.

Dr Maureen Ille

Last night I attended a talk by Dr Maureen Ille.  It was hosted by Retford Art Society and it was the first time I had attended a meeting.

Because the lecture theatre was in darkness was unable to take notes but Maureen kindly sent me some notes as an aide memoire.

The talk was called "Art on Art" and the main premise was that artists have always used the work of other artists as inspiration.  Dr Ille gave many examples so here are just a few.

Manet's "Dejeuner sur L'Herbe" is derived from a detail of Raphael's "Judgement of Paris".  Manet only knew the work from an engraving as the original Raphael is lost.

Engraving of Raphael's Judgement of Paris
www.backtoclassics.com

Detail from the above engraving

Manet used the image of the three seated figures in the bottom right corner for his painting:

Manet's Dejeuner sur L'Herbe 1863http://www.everypainterpaintshimself.com

Amazingly this was reinterpreted as a screen print by Alain Jacquet in 1964.  It is a 6 foot diptych and it reminds me of Seurat and Pointillism.

Dejeuner sur L'Herbe, Alain Jacquet, 1964
www.drouot.com

And Picasso had a try as well.

Picasso's version of Manet's Dejeuner sur L'Herbe

www.theguardian.com

There are many more; some are sculptures where of course you can walk all around the work instead of just looking at from the front:

              Manet: Dejeuner sur LHerbe, John De Andrea 1982

nbmaa.wordpress.com

Picasso in the 50's and 60's parodied Velazquez "Las Meninas" in 58 ways.

Las Maninas, Velazquez, 1656/7
www.mystudios.com

Las Meninas, Picasso,  1957

www.wikipaintings.org

and a more colourful one

Las Meninas, Picasso,  1957
www.wikipaintings.org

We heard about parodies of famous nudes - the speciality of Mel Ramos:

Olympia by Manet - 1863
commons.wikimedia.org

Manet's Olympia by Mel Ramos, 1974
http://rogallery.com

We also looked at the many reworkings of Munch's "The Scream" and Leonardo's "Mona Lisa".

This was a very interesting evening and I'm grateful to Maureen for her help after the event.

Part 2 Stage 3 (4)

Something bigger

Screen printing is essentially a production process and part of the frustration I've felt is that the time and effort spent in setting up and cleaning is disproportionate to the outcome, however pleasing it may be. Therefore for my larger piece I'm going to try a small print run.

I'm putting together some hampers for Christmas gifts so my idea is that I will print tea towels and include them if they turn out OK.  I bought some tea towel blanks from the Organic Textile Company.  The quality is good and they are less than £2 each.

Each time I try another approach to printing it throws up new challenges and this is no different.  I have to create a design that will be practical with my A3 frame.  It only gives me an A4 print.  I've decided therefore to try reducing the print size to A5 and do a repeat pattern.

This is my plan:

use jagged edge masking tape grid design that gave me good results previously
divide the tea towel into quarters
use an alternate design
do a full size sample.

Like this:

Stage 1 - vertical, colour 1

Stage 2 - horizontal, colour 1

Stage 3 - horizontal, colour 2

Stage 4 - vertical, colour 2

Complete tea towel

That's the plan but there's some maths to do to work out how to make it viable with minimum stages.

I am concerned that working two sections together it could be difficult. My sample will test my measuring.  This is what I think will work taking into account the width of the frame and my design.

Since I've been a bit fixated on colour recently I thought I'd have a try at complementary combinations.  I used my pencil crayons and then tried to match the colour with my dyes.

I've found it hard to mix my fabric dyes because they are so strong.  I tried again and used a cocktail stick to introduce the colour to the binder and whilst not perfect, it was better.  I decided to use the lime green and pink.


Here's the masking tape design I've put on my screen.  You can already see positive/negative shapes.

My design in masking tape

My first pull onto paper

I've printed onto my sample fabric and it's been hard work for little reward.

This is as far as it goes

I have made several mistakes

• my screen is too small for this sort of design.  If I had a screen large enough to make a single large design I would have been more satisfied.
• my motifs are too far apart and therefore unbalanced
• changing from a vertical to horizontal print meant I had to tape on my design too many times for it to be a practical proposition.
• there is too little colour sitting unexcitingly on the pale fabric
• most important, it is too controlled and just doesn't sing.

For all those reasons I'm going back to the drawing board.  I very much enjoyed working with vilene so I'm going to mask off the outside couple of inches of a tea towel and do an all over print.

I felt that I'd practised the technique so I just chose my colours and got on with it.  I selected three colours; lime green (because I had some left), a light purple and red.  I knew I would have to be circumspect with my binder because it's coming to an end.

I  wanted to print four tea towels so I padded out my work table and used my print board as well.

Ready to go - I masked off the edges of the tea towels

It was soon obvious that I didn't have enough binder for four similar tea towels so I decided to do three and any  paint left would be used on the fourth in a more casual way.

I used the lime green first and did two pulls on all three tea towels - I had to be quick because I was worried that the paint would begin to dry and I wouldn't get the blends that were successful last time.

Next I used the purple then the red.  How I would have managed without my husband I've no idea.  It got increasingly messy and it was lovely to have someone around whose hands were clean.

From previous experience I knew the vilene might come adrift when it got saturated so I taped it on belt and braces style.  It stretched a bit but it stood up to 30+  pulls.

After completing the three tea towels I took what paint was left and did whatever I could on the fourth one.  It was predominantly red but with flashes of the other colours.  Not a speck of mud in sight.

Hung out to dry

The colours are much more subtle that I expected but really pretty.  The tea towels are quite hefty linen and much more substantial than the calico I've been using.  At this stage of drying it looks as though the colour is just sitting on the top of the fabric rather than soaking in. When I used lighter weight calico there was lots of blending but here it's more like layering.  I'll have to wait and see what happens when I set the colour and wash them.

This is what I got:

The fourth one - with left over dye.  The green actually looks gold.

Although the colours were the same for 3 of the tea towels they all vary very much.

I've never before liked tea towels!

One thing I've wanted to try is working with fresh leaves placed directly on the fabric.  Something else I've wanted a go at is mixing my unknown dyes with the Selectacine ones I've been using.  I decided to combine the two experiments and got some interesting results.

The colours of my unknown dyes are cerise and turquoise so I'm stuck with them but I chose to introduce some green which meant I used some Selectacine in the turquoise as a last pull.

Trying out my colours

and made a pull using both turquoise and cerise in the well. I then moved the leaves around and made several more pulls.  I got one or two lovely ethereal shapes. It seems stable but whether it will wash out I don't yet know.  In some places the paint is too thick. Because the mix of two sorts of dye seems to have worked my colour range is extended a bit.

These are some of the images that emerged:

When this was ironed and washed some of the definition of the leaves seemed to disappear.

Knitting and Stitching Show, Harrogate

I went to the show on the opening day and it was busy, busy, busy.  I managed to complete my shopping easily and left lots of time for looking at the work of folk I admire and finding new ones to add to the list.  Here's a few of the things I'll remember and hopefully try out.

Val Holmes

I now have a wish list and right at the top is a workshop with Val Holmes.  The fact that it is in France would be a bonus.  I talked for a long time with Val about dyeing generally and discharge printing specifically and she was generous with her help and advice.

Val Holmes

http://textile-art-centre.com.fr/wp-content/gallery/a-year-in-art-textiles/june.jpg

Val's  passions are colour, light, composition, threads, her sewing machine and drawing with pastels water colours, dyes and paints.  The excitement she feels about her work and the landscape that inspires it shines through.

I think I'm particularly keen on this because it fits so neatly with what I've been trying out.

Janice Gunner
I was particularly taken with the Shibori work by Janice.  Using indigo dye, a bit of plastic pipe and lots of imagination she produces wonderful patterns.

www.janicegunner.co.uk

She also described a method where she pulled running stitch up very tight and then dyed the fabric.  It sounds so simple but then the best effects often are.  Given time I'll try these methods.

Jean Draper
Jean's work is very different; it reminds me very much of the work I did on structure in A Creative Approach although it's far, far more accomplished.  

textilestudygroup.co.uk

I liked this when I did some digging on the web:

From magstitch.blogspot.com

As ever all I want to do is touch it.  Seeing this work has reminded me how much I enjoyed making structures and that I shouldn't overlook it as a way to work.

Ruth Issett
I have been very alive to colour in my screen printing work and have learned to look at it slightly differently.  This made me very susceptible to the seductive colours of Ruth Issett.  She had sketchbooks on show and leafing through them was a great inspiration and gave me a direction I might like to try out.  I couldn't wait until Christmas I bought her new book for myself.  I can't really review it yet because I've only leafed through but it's delicious.

This shows how Ruth layers fabric and stitches by hand. textilestudygroup.co.uk

Ruth spends lots of time playing with layers before she commits to a course of action and this in itself is a learning point.

I had a lovely day that offered no end of new ideas and the opportunity to see how unusual materials might be used.



Issett, Ruth, 2013, A Passion for Colour.  Search Press, Tunbridge Wells.

textilestudygroup.co.uk
http://textile-art-centre.com.fr/wp-content/gallery/a-year-in-art-textiles/june.jpg

Quentin Blake exhibition

It was the annual Art and Food Fair today at the Harley Gallery - wonderful.  There's a variety of studios from an organ restorer through to jewellers.  The artists are all happy to chat and offer mince pies.  See  http://www.harleygallery.co.uk/maker.php?pg_id=11&st_id=103  for more lovely info.

Showing in the Gallery was an exhibition by Quentin Blake.  We are all familiar with his illustrations in Roald Dahl books but I didn't realise until recently that he has been commissioned to produce work for hospitals and health centres which have a therapeutic effect on residents. It was this that was on show.  The link below gives a good insight into the motivation for these projects.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2012/jul/10/quentin-blake-roald-dahl-hospitals

There were four sections to the work.  The first was a series of illustrations about Planet Zog for Harrow Hospital and aimed at the under 5's.  The pictures are full of life with plenty to talk about.  I was with my 6 year old grand daughter and she created stories around what she saw. (She went on to do the same with every other image she saw).  This one particularly appealed to her and she populated it with people she knew:

From Quentin Blake's Planet Zog series

There were also images for a unit treating people with eating disorders.  The series is called "Ordinary Life in Vincent Square" and they presented a quite different approach. They showed the everyday tasks people do as they get on with their lives - I think the aim might have been to make life seem "normal" and encourage patients to think that things will improve.  I am used to Blake's work being fun (as these still are) but the sensitivity displayed here gave a real insight into the artist.

From Ordinary Life in Vincent Square by Quentin Blake

The third section Our Friends in the Circus was made for a mental health ward in another hospital in Harrow, and features fire-eaters, jugglers and clowns.

From Our Friends in the Circus by Quentin Blake

In these pictures Blake doesn't shy away from the difficulties society has with mental illness.  He confronts it with compassion and humour.

The fourth series of pictures are the most recent and were for a mother and baby unit in Angers.  The theme is the entrance of the baby to the world and meeting its mother (and father) for the first time. The colours are limited to mainly green and this give an ethereal, floating feeling to the work which resembles the womb.  Pure magic.

From the series for the maternity unit in Angers

Part 2 Stage 3 (3)

Lining things up

I have a photo of the beautiful roof in the Corn Exchange, Leeds and I want to develop a print from it.
It is another variation on the theme of a grid but no two shapes are quite the same.

I chopped a bit out and outlined the shapes in alternate black and red.

I made two stencils from sticky back plastic; one with the black shapes cut out and the other with the red ones removed.

I printed the first stencil onto paper 

and when I was happy with the position I printed again on acetate so that I could match up subsequent prints. I marked the position of the acetate on my base and lined up each piece of fabric to that mark.

Once again I used calico but I found a bit of deep pink/purple as well and I wondered how the colours would look on darker fabric.

I got a good crisp print

This is brighter than in reality

Because I'd had some difficulty getting a pull to go right to the bottom of the screen I took off the pads at the foot of the screen and hey presto it worked and a pull made contact all the way down the frame.

Because the weather is damp and it's taking ages to dry I'll have to wait until tomorrow to do the next bit.

Next day...

Getting things lined up was tricky but here's where the printed acetate came into its own.  I did one pull on paper then set up:

Making sure things line up

There's a little bleeding but I'm pretty pleased with this

This seems a simple enough design but it was a real test of logic and organisation.

On the darker cloth things are much more subtle.

I found this video helpful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOv6-Mlv0Ls


Some time later....

I put marks between the shapes to represent the roof bars and introduce a little of a third colour

I've had some problems getting a bright green but here it is at last.  My blue is very strong and I've always been heavy handed with it.  This is lots of yellow and a smidgen of blue.

And on the darker fabric.  Interesting effect

It is clear that this doesn't work; the fabric needs to be paler than the printing medium.  I think this leads nicely into discharge printing.

I've done this with left over paint and the sticky back plastic stencil I've just used:

Another idea

I had the idea that I'd like to try a screen printed, checked design with some blending of colours. I cut a stencil from sticky backed plastic and planned to use it once vertically and once horizontally.  After that I wanted to change the colour and repeat the process but slightly offset the pattern.

What I didn't take into account was that for this to work my image needed to be square.  This is what I ended up with.

When I wanted to turn my pattern round it didn't fit
so I just proceeded with the second colour

After batching it had bled but it was quite attractive.

If I have time I'll try the same process again but this time cut a square stencil.

Much later....

It's a long way down the line but I've finally managed to try this again.  This time I've used my Selecticine and some silk.  I've not used silk often but this time I wanted colour on both sides and Selecticine tends to be a surface dye.

I used ultramarine and yellow and got a range of greens as well

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this.  There seems to be lots of "puddling". Whilst it adds some texture it's not what I wanted.  I'm unsure why this happens.  Earlier I though it might be too much medium but this time I curtailed it.  A question for my tutor perhaps.

There are obvious red lines in the pattern.  This is the residue from my drop cloth and the magenta Procion I used in the last sample.  It's interesting to notice that the magenta line is broken where there is no dye.  I imagine this is because the silk is damp and the magenta leeches through. Time to change my cloth then!  The added colour is quite a bonus though.

My beautiful drop cloth.

I thought the drop cloth would eventually become mud like but it has retained everything I've done and is quite a history of Part 2.