Screen Printing Process 1

My two days in the print workshop last week were pretty full on. We learnt how to mix acid dyes (as silk is a protein fibre, 'acid milling' and 'acid levelling' dyes create effective prints on the fabric), how to use the dyes as a printable colour, and how to wash the screen to print again. 

Mixing the dyes felt like a bit of a crazy science experiment, as you have to measure out different amounts of the powders and chemicals in a fume cupboard and then  heat them, following a special 'recipe'. I chose to print in pink, yellow, orange, blue and purple- colours taken from my box clever research. Unfortunately, I found it hard to get going, as on the first day the backing cloth where I was working was dirty, so black ink from someone's previous prints came through onto mine- not what I wanted! Then on the second day, after we'd changed the cloth, there were 2 fire alarms which we had to evacuate for. This meant I had to learn to get on with my printing pretty fast to get my samples done in the afternoon! Margret, the print technician, was great and encouraging though, and when I got into the swing of things, I found the process really fun and was sad to have to stop at the end of the day! Screen printing seems like quite a progressive art,  as you work in layers, deciding between each print what you will add ontop next, and how overprinting in another colour with another shape/design will change the design that you have already built up. 

taping one of my stencils to the screen to print

Printing in progress!

goodbye stencil- it was sad to wash them off the screen after use!

building up layers of colour and pattern

prints in progress

Inspired by Antoni and Alison's carefree, energetic SS13 prints, Sarah Raphel's work I saw at the Museum of childhood and Louise Gray's busy and bold layered prints, (the in-depth posts about these influences can be found here, http://hannahhappymaking.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/fashion-print-inspiration.html , here, http://hannahhappymaking.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/making-stencils.html and here http://hannahhappymaking.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/inspiration-sarah-raphaels-childhood.html!) I enjoyed working on a large piece of silk like it was a big canvas to experiment on. It helped me to design in quite a free, fun way, knowing that I could simultaneously build up different areas of pattern all at once. Also, because I could see my designs all at once as one big picture, I was conscious of wanting to make a family of prints, with my playful vision running through all of them. I was quite careful about my colour choices and how many times I repeated the same stencils however, as I wanted to make sure there would be enough variation in my work to give the final samples their own identity and make an exciting, surprising collection. 

my printed fabric steamed and ready to wash, iron, cut up and present!