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! |
