Amazing News, and Surface Design

I hope you all really like surface design (a lot, a lot, a lot) because starting in October and lasting for the next two and a half years, it'll possibly be about the only thing you'll see on this blog! That's because I've been accepted to Jane Dunnewold's Art Cloth Masteries Program for 2011!! The program will cover all aspects of surface design and fabric dyeing. It's a huge honor to have been accepted and I am thrilled beyond words. I can't wait to get started!!

I have no idea how taking this class will effect either my work or my blogging, nor how much of what I'm learning I will be able to blog about. I know that the work load will probably kick my tush, but I am highly motivated and up for the challenge.

So while I nervously waited this week to hear news of whom had been accepted, I puttered with fabric, deconstructed screen printing, Thermofax screen printing and some overdyeing.

A couple of weeks ago, I showed you how this 100% cotton Primatex started as an only partly-successful deconstructed screen print to which I added several layers of traditional screening with textile inks and paints.

Interesting start, but the original DSP wasn't making me happy. I charged a few more screens with dyes, let them dry, and tried again.

(45" x 45")

MUCH happier! It still needs work, it's a little muddled in the middle and the bottom half is still fading away, but it's got some really fabulous bits happening in it.

(detail)

(detail)

A few other pieces are in various stages of preparations.

This is the second layer of a somewhat familiar theme for me (I did a similar piece that sold at QSDS earlier this year), so to keep it from becoming a repeat, I'll have to run it off the rails in some other direction and watch what happens.

This is the third layer for this piece of cotton muslin. It was hand-dyed, and then screened with black dye and then screened again with white textile ink. No idea where it will end up.

This one is feeling almost complete to me. It needs a little more attention and then some serious trimming with the rotary cutter!

I never would have thought I'd like this motley thing. It started as a deconstructed screen printing on white cotton that just never really "took", in my mind. One day I had some leftover kelly green dye that was already activated with soda ash (and therefore needed to be used right away), so I tossed the remains into a container with this. Bleck, it was seriously awful. I sent it to the discharge bucket and then sat on it for a few more weeks, hating it and not knowing how to fix it. Finally, I just started screening the heck out of it until it began to look better.

(detail)

This opportunity to study for two and a half years with an artist the caliber of Jane Dunnewold is mind-boggling to me. Two years ago, I shifted my focus from painting to fabrics and surface design, and a whole new world of art opened up for me. This weekend, even more of it unfolded when I read the email welcoming me to the next class. I intend to suck up every moment of education and wisdom I can.

Wish me luck! Happy creating!

The Screens Arrived!

The dozen silk screens I ordered from Lynn Krawczyk arrived last night and I've spent the whole morning playing with them.

I know that silk screening is "nothing new" to a lot of people, but being able to work so easily and effectively with perfect renditions of my own images is a new thrill to me.

Let me first say that Lynn was absolutely awesome through this process. When I started talking to her about Thermofax screens, I knew very little about how to create clear, crisp imagery to burn onto the screens, and knew only a little more about how to actually use the finished screens.

 

She took a huge amount of time in educating and guiding me and now that I've had a chance to play with these beauties, I am even more grateful to her for being so meticulous.

To give myself plenty of time to practice, I started with paper that had previously been painted.

Back in my painting days, I off-loaded a lot of paint from my brushes, palette knives, stencil materials and stamps onto many sheets of paper.

I saved all those "neutral" background papers, knowing that one day more could be done to them to make them interesting and useable.

While these prints are hardly art, I can see many of them being used in my collage work.

I used both the Tulip Screen Printing Paints Lynn sent along (thank you, Lynn!) and some of my own Versatex screen printing ink.

I was particularly fond of the fine-tipped squeeze top on the Tulip paints... they made it very easy to squeeze the paint out into the duct tape well (thoughtfully provided by Lynn) in small, controllable amounts.

I used a large palette knife from the hardware store to pull the prints.

One of the things I found really important to keep in mind was something Lynn had told me about using screens that contain a lot of very fine lines: use a gentle touch! She was absolutely right.

I also found it really important to not only keep tight control of the angle at which I held my palette knife as I pulled the print, but also to watch the bead of ink rolling under the knife to make sure I didn't lay the ink down too quickly.

I needed to be sure I didn't smoosh too much paint down into those fine lines, or the whole image would have blurred.

While I didn't dawdle too long (thereby not allowing the ink to dry on the screen), I didn't rush the process either.

Next to my elbow, I kept a shallow, flat container of water about two inches deep. When I was done with a screen, I laid it flat in the water and swished it around a little to make sure it was fully submerged.

This kept the inks and paints that remained in the screens from drying out  until I could take them all to the sink at once and wash them.

Never let ink or paint to dry in a screen because it will clog the mesh of the screen, making it impossible to use again.

When I was finished with my printing session, I took all the screens to the sink and washed them very gently with a soft sponge, some dish detergent and cold water.

I'm totally hooked, and I can see myself using these again and again for years to come, as well as spending a lot more time, effort (and money) to create and use even more screens in the future.

Happy creating!