Open cueB 2015

I am taking part in an exhibition in Brockley, South-East London, from tomorrow, the 13th February. The exhibition is Open cueB 2015, and I will be exhibiting this picture, "Drift I", which I made last year:

The exhibition will be open from 13th February to 15th March 2015, at: cueB Gallery, 325 Brockley Road, London SE4 2QZ, www.cuebgallery.com

2014

handmade screenprinting workshop

Last month I taught a workshop on handmade screenprinting in Peebles, near Edinburgh.

Firstly the workshop participants cut out paper stencils based on previous sketches they had made and printed these onto fabric, using screen mesh stretched in an embroidery hoop as a screen and printing with fabric paint:

Then participants prepared second screens using drawing fluid and screen filler stencils, and printed these as a second layer on their textile prints:

Some more prints:

...and more:

...and a selection of the final prints laid out on a table:

The aim was for participants to try out handmade screenprinting, and to make the base for a textile artwork that could be added to with embroidery or worked on further if the artist wishes.

The workshop participants came mostly from the Peebles Creative Space art group which meets regularly with their teacher, artist Claire Blyth.  They all worked hard throughout the workshop and I think they made a variety of beautiful and original textile prints.

nasturtium prints

I printed my nasturtium designs using paper stencils and a handmade screen-filler screen...

I printed the first layer using paper stencils under an embroidery hoop with screen mesh.  I used discharge paste to print these designs - it takes the colour out of fabric, to leave a negative-looking shape.

When you print with discharge paste you can't see the print, except as a wet mark where the paste printed.  Then you have to wait for it to dry, then steam it for about 20 minutes (e.g. in a colander above boiling water in a big pan - wrap your printed fabric in tea towels or some other fabric before putting it in your homemade steamer).  After steaming you can wash the print and that's when the discharge print appears, taking the colour out of the fabric.

After the discharge prints had dried, I printed on top of them with normal printing paste (orange screenprinting ink), with the screen I made previously using drawing fluid and screen filler.

I'm planning to embroider over these pictures and make more layers using stitch.

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.

screenprinting using embroidery hoops as screens

Recently I taught a class on handmade printmaking for the Community Learning department at Morley College.  These are some photos of learners making hand-drawn screens, stretched on embroidery hoops, and then screenprinting them onto cushion covers...

Painting over the traced images using screen drawing fluid.  Screen mesh has been stretched in the embroidery hoops.

The "screens" coated with screen filler on top of the dried drawing fluid.  After the screen filler is dry, then drawing fluid can be washed out under a tap, to create a stencil for printing.

Printing the designs onto cushion covers, using textile inks and a small card like an old library card as a squeegee.

Cat stencil design in orange.

Floral design in blue.

Fish and flowers design in brown.

The learners did the printmaking very successfully, and made great printed cushion covers.

Play!

I had fun recently printing a picture for the East London Printmakers' summer exhibition, "Printathon"...

The exhibition is Olympic-themed, and I made a print about monkeys riding bmx bikes on a snake.  I used a stencil, bicycle tyre, block printing, screenprinting and embroidery to make the picture.  I started off creating a texture by using a stencil and a tyre from my bicycle to print with:

First I practised on this bright blue polycotton to see whether the bike tyre would work as a print, then later I printed it again on a pale turquoise linen for the final print.  As you can see, I printed it on the kitchen floor (perhaps my blog should be "kitchenfloorprintmaker"!), with my baby waiting patiently in his standy-thing while my husband took these photos.

 

After the stencil-tyre print, I block printed bmx-tyre marks on the snake, then screen-printed the monkeys, and machine embroidered then hand embroidered on the textile.

Here are some sneak previews of the final picture, which I called "Play!"  If you want to see the whole piece, it will be on display at East London Printmakers "Printathon" exhibition from 8th June-1st July at Foreman's Smokehouse Gallery, E3 2NT (see www.eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk for details).