box set 2014

I was happy to take part recently in the East London Printmakers' Box Set 2014 - where 30 or so members each make about 40 limited edition prints then distribute them in boxes and each have a set of prints by each artist who took part. There are no constraints of medium (as long as it's print) or subject, only the size of the paper - about 30 x 30 cm.

I took part in a half-studio and half-handmade printing way - I exposed a screen with images for my screen print in the studio, as I don't have an exposure unit at home, but then printed it at home using the screen in some clamps I had previously fixed onto a wallpaper pasting table...

One of the images I had taken to the studio (my print had 4 layers) didn't expose properly, so I did have to make that design by hand on the screen as well - painting it with drawing fluid and screen filler.

I don't usually print 40 pictures at a time, and I don't have a drying rack, so to dry the prints looked like this:

Every surface in my living room was covered with prints. I had to keep the cats and my son out of the area for the duration of the printing session!

Prints...

...and prints...

...and more prints...

This is what the completed print looks like... I call it 'Green Birds.'

wood block printing workshop with Sarah Lawton

In July I went to a wood block printing workshop taught by artist-in-residence at East London Printmakers, Sarah Lawton.

Sarah had spent some time in Gujarat state in India, working on a collaborative project with local artisans (block print and embroidery) during an artist's residency. She shared some information about this experience and its outcomes - one outcome was an artist's book Sarah had made called A New Manifesto Ten Indian Insights and another was some garments that Sarah had block printed.

The first thing we did in the workshop was do some block printing on fabric using textile ink and blocks that Sarah had had made in India.

Then Sarah demonstrated carving plywood using Japanese woodcut tools, and the workshop participants each drew their own design on a piece of plywood and cut it out.

I printed my design of birds flocking, onto a piece of cloth. I didn't love the print, but I didn't come with a specific design in mind, this was just an image I had been thinking about so I could develop it more to make a better print. Also I found the plywood difficult to carve as I mostly just use lino when I do block printing. Lino cuts in all directions easily but with wood you have to follow the grain, especially with plywood - or it splinters.

During the workshop we also made a collaborative print on paper using Sarah's Indian wood blocks and gouache paints:

I found the workshop very interesting. Particularly hearing about Sarah's collaborative artistic practice and seeing some natural dyes which Sarah had brought back from India, which she said should work alright as printing pigments if mixed with a medium for textile printing. I love the idea of doing the whole printing process using organic sustainable materials such as natural dyes and wood (although lino is easier for me to carve). I've never tried mixing plant dyes with textile binder but I'd like to.

yellow lichen print

I've been making a textile print called 'Yellow Lichen' for an exhibition with East London Printmakers at the end of this month.

The inspiration for this print came from a trip to the isle of Arran last year.  Here are some photos...

I made drawings of lichen, then I drew my lichen images onto two screens and filled in the drawn outlines, painting by hand with screen drawing fluid.  I let the drawing fluid dry then coated the screens with screen filler...

 After the screen filler was dry, I washed out the drawing fluid with a hose, and that created the stencil for my prints.

 After some test prints, I began printing my design on some heavy grey linen I had bought for this project.  You can see from the photos that the "kitchen table" aspect of this printing is quite difficult with a large length of cloth.  Apart from showing this print in an upcoming show by East London Printmakers' members, I want to use it for curtains in our living room, but I have to print quite small areas at one time on our dining table, so that I don't ruin the print by a wet area of print touching another part of the cloth.

 The East London Printmakers' group exhibition, 'Going Underground', will be on show in the Shoreditch Town Hall basement from 28th June.

hand screenprinted box set edition 2012

I'm late to post this blog entry, as I actually made this print last October, but better late than never...

So, this is a screenprint with embroidery that I made to take part in East London Printmakers' 2012 Box Set edition.  I printed it at home in my garage...

First I painted some writing on the screen using screen drawing fluid.  It will be useful for anyone reading this to know my mistake at this stage - as in the photo above, I first painted it on the 'outside' of the screen, as I usually do when using drawing fluid and screen filler, because the screen filler sits slightly raised on the screen and is better on the non-ink side. But then I realised that of course the writing would come out backwards when I printed it (the screen sits upside-down compared to how it is in the photo).  So I painted it again on the inside of the screen.

I then coated the screen with screen filler and washed out the drawing fluid to leave the text 'stencil.'  And I set up to print in our garage, which you can see is not fully converted into a studio yet!

The screen is fixed into 2 clamps, which are screwed onto a wallpaper pasting table and I've 'registered' the print by printing it onto a piece of acetate, putting the piece of paper which I'll print onto underneath the acetate print in the right place, then putting pieces of masking tape at the corners of the paper so each subsequent piece of paper is in the same place and the print is in the same place on the paper.

After printing the text layer, I then cut out a paper stencil for the yellow body image and printed that on top of each piece of paper.

50 pieces of paper later (more than my clothes horse and clothes pegs could hold at a time!) I was finished the printing part of this image.  Then I poked holes into the paper with an etching needle and sewed red embroidery thread to complete my design.

It's called 'Body Scan', after this meditation-type practice which I feel anchors me to the ground sometimes.

It is part of a Box Set, which East London Printmakers produce every year, where members of the studio make multiple prints then each participant gets a box with one of everyone's prints in it. Also some boxes are spare for the studio to exhibit or archive.