Print: Screen Printing

To start off this technical block we needed to design 6 A3 black and white designs with the intension of picking one to transfer on to a screen ready to print. I touch inspiration from my drawings as well as the technical blacks I had already done. Here are my 6 designs with me choosing the last one. 

I prepared my own screen by cleaning it with a special chemical and I had to remember to wear gloves goggles and ear defenders when using the jet wash.

I then lined my screen with a light sensitive emulsion ready to transfer our design onto our screen. Once the screen had set I then oiled my photocopy of my final design for me to then transfer my design onto my screen using light.

Now that my screen was ready I had to consider colour and dyes. Seems we had to produce 6 samples I decide to only dye 3 of my samples with a background colour. This involved the dye lab, where an apron and gloves should be worn. All the dye where made up for us set at 60oc.

·      Wet the fabric and make sure the fabric is constantly with a bowl

·      Drop the fabric with in your chosen colour make sure you move the fabric around. The longer you leave the fabric in the darker the colour.

·      Rinse the dye out using cold water until no colour runs

·      And then just let it dry (remember it dry’s lighter)

The colours I used to dye through my screen where either acid levelling dyes or acid millings. Remember to always follow the recipe. I created 3 colours: Red 4g, Red 4B, and Red 3GP. Depending on how much dye you put in depended on the darkness on of the colour. My colours stuck to the theme of the children’s toys with me using oranges, pinks and reds.

Before it came to printing I had made up some stencils so that my work was varied, theses consisted of a check, hexagon, rectangles, and triangles.

Once I had printed I had to steam my samples for 30mins and then wash them and let them dry naturally.

Here are my 6 samples:

this was my strike off of my screen

this is a combination of my screen and then using a blank screen and my stencil of hexagons. I like the contrast of the 2 patterns and colours 

using my screen and my stencil of rectangles layed twice. The fact my original screen is hard to distinguish really sets this sample apart and the idea of creating new shapes really interested me.

A combination of my screen and the use of a checked screen in the corners gave this great scope for a repeat print. But here as an individual sample I don’t think it lends itself to well.

Using my screen at a number of different angels as well as it being layers with my triangle stencils. I like how busy this print from my screen being quite block like this gives it a whole new feel almost lace like.

this is a simple strike off of my screen through a checked stencil. Even though this is a simple print I find it very interesting and I like the balance of print and open space.

I felt that all my samples worked well and showed off a full range of the techniques I had learnt.