Screen printing start
I’ve been recently learning about screen printing, which is something I’ve wanted to do for ages. I love the look of screen printed fabrics and prints on paper. My wife bought me a kit and I started off with a couple of prints onto paper which taught me quite a lot about how much of the various screen printing mediums to apply! I particularly wanted to help Lorna with her textile work by designing and printing fabrics which she could use in her work. The idea was this would give her unique printed fabrics and also the ability for us to design exactly the kind of things she wants to use in her work.
So for my third print, I worked with a photo of grasses I’d taken and produced a design in Illustrator (top left, above) which I was very happy with. This is my first print design to use colour to show a background and thus leave a negative space (the fluffy seeds around the grass heads). So I had two colours to print; the brown of the grasses and the blue of the sky. With my screen printing kit I had only screen drawing fluid with which I had to paint on the design and it took ages (a good week). I must get the photo emulsion stuff!
Anyway, with the screens finally finished (the two right hand photos, above) we printed four copies, two of which came out very well and two of which didn’t come out quite so well. We chose some fabrics to complement the print and Lorna worked her magic to turn them into two lovely cushion covers (bottom left in the photo).
It’m very happy with the final result and the cushions are currently available in Lorna’s Etsy shop. I have lots of new ideas for prints, so we’ll see what happens!
August 31st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
[...] I wanted to explain a bit more about the fabric that we printed on the cushions which are now in the shop, but John has written such an excellent post on his blog, I think you should go read all about it there! [...]
September 1st, 2008 at 7:44 am
hello! i’ve found this post really interesting becasue i too have just started screenprinting my own fabrics. i’m so impressed you painted these screens, i’m not surprised it took forever! i get mine made into thermofax screens – a little bit expensive but perhaps worth you checking out for reference? http://www.thermofaxscreens.co.uk. you basically send them a photocopy of the design and they create a screen for you. available in 3 sizes, and they send them pretty quickly. this design is lovely by the way – the design in illustrator is goegeous as it is too!
September 1st, 2008 at 8:03 am
I think this is a fantastic result and you have only just started! Can I ask which screenprinting kit you have and also how did you transfer the image onto the screen – did you draw it/trace it as I imagine it is difficult with drawing fluid getting the exact image? It is much easier with photo emulsion but then you have to have a strong light source.
Jacqui
September 1st, 2008 at 8:56 am
Hi Lucie and Jacqui, thanks for your comments!
Lucie, I’ll have to look at your site when I’m not at work. Looks like you have some great designs! I think I have a long way to go to design really good prints. It took ages to paint the screens by hand and I almost gave up at one point. I seriously want to do the photo emulsion thing. I can see that, not only would you get better results because photo emulsion is accurate to the original, but it must be a real time-saver.
Jacqui, Lorna got me the Daler Rowney screen printing kit. I designed the print in Illustrator, printed it in black on paper and then traced it onto the screens with a pencil. I referred to the print while I was painting on the screen fluid as the pencil was quite hard to see in places. Not the best way of doing it!
My goal is to help Lorna’s textile work by designing and printing fabrics, I have lots of ideas in progress and will be working on them more this week so maybe something new soon…
September 4th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Hi John
Thank you for your reply – I have used Daler Rowney System 3 screenprinting onto paper but not onto fabric so I will have to try this. I have been doing some block printing with lino blocks which has been fun. Sounds quite difficult with the drawing fluid. Will check back to see how you are getting on.
Lucie – thanks for your comment about the thermoscreens I will check their site as I think your fabric printing is great too.
Jacqui
September 4th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Thanks, I am planning to work on new prints tonight and at the weekend so I will definitely post the new work soon!
October 16th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I found you thru your wife’s blog today. Firstly, let me say I can sympathize with your G5 woes… my relatively new iMac mysteriously shuts itself off these days and I am not ready to bring it into the shop just yet- they may keep it longer than I can afford. I find it a bit of a testament to their *superiority* that they can keep on going for a time with such critical problems looming. I suppose the day when it won’t start at all, will be the day I have to concede that it is time to go.
Well done for the first time screen printing. I used to silk-screen religiously years ago, but I admit I am now intimated by the technique with all the emulsions and such. I have a fear it will go all wrong. Luckily, my local screen printer can burn my screens of a reasonable cost. That is next year’s project however.
Oh, and one other question? Lorna? Alice? Which is it!? I’m so confused!
October 17th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for your kind comment. Unfortunately I haven’t progressed the screen printing any more recently as I’m trying to sort out my job so I’ve been working on my folio.
I am very keen to get back to the print designs, though, and have had lots of ideas so hopefully soon we can start to work on them.
As for Alice, Lorna…I have two wives. The secret is finally out! No, seriously, Alice and Lorna are the same person – my lovely wife. She just likes to have two names to use as the mood suits her…
I am checking out your Flickr stream…such fantastic designs!
John
December 18th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
wow! i’m an experienced printer and i think this is really great textile work, especially for your third try! you will be very happy when you start using photo emulsion. its gonna make you life a lot easier.
keep up the good work.