Monday, August 27, 2012

Sunsets and Screenprinting

One thing I love about Oregon's Willamette Valley is the sunsets.  It was partly cloudy today, which makes for a more interesting sky when the sun begins its evening descent.

Tonight's sunset.
 . . . and a few minutes later.
 Yesterday I did some deconstructed screenprinting.  First, I removed the items I'd embedded in the thick, wet thickened Procion dye on the back of a silkscreen, after making sure the dye was very dry.  Then I mixed up some print paste (urea, sodium alginate, water) and let it thicken.  The screen was placed on top of  my soda-soaked fabric, and print paste was spooned into the "well" at the (inside) top of the screen.  A squeegee was used to pull the print paste across the screen, which releases the dried dye on the back and prints the image.
Ready to pull the next print onto fabric.
Ink remaining on screen after deconstructed screenprinting.
The mess in my kitchen nook (AKA my printmaking studio!)
Wet prints on fabric, ready for batching.
 Today I rinsed the batched fabrics, then wash, dried, and ironed them.  I got a few nice surprises (always the best part), as well as a few duds.
Series of prints from one screen.
Detail shot of print from another screen.




When I finished working with the screens last night, I did a little dye-painting (painting with thickened dyes).  Since the next Fiberexplorations challenge is LETTERS, I played with writing, using a narrow paintbrush and for the very thin lines, a curved plastic syringe from the veterinarian's office.
Detail of dye-painted piece.

5 comments:

  1. It looks to me that you are truly inspired by the Oregon's Willamette Valley sunset. May I ask what time of the day you performed this deconstructed screen printing?

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  2. Hmmm . . . did you mean to ask what time I took the sunset photo? (I just wonder, since time of day has no effect on decon. screenprinting.)

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  3. I just want to know the time of the day you started doing this deconstructed screen printing and the time you finished. Did it take you a day or more?

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    1. I don't remember the time, but I probably did the printing midafternoon and it wouldn't have taken more than 30 min. Of course, the screens were set up the previous day and left to dry overnight (with embedded objects). I hope to do more soon!

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  4. Now I know! So it's not that long to perfect deconstructed screen printing. Well, I hope to see more of your work soon.

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