Generally I do not love Twitter. It seems to be license for people to write a lot of boring crap that no one cares about (You had a cup of TEA? REALLY?), or bombard you with links and advertising. Sometimes you just end up wondering if some people are doing anything ELSE with their day.
But I will admit that I have just spent a lovely Saturday for which I have Twitter to thank. Lovely Karen emailed me last week to say someone she knew had tweeted about a screenprinting on textiles class in Brighton that she couldn’t attend. I contacted her, Paypalled her the cost of the class and went in her place! I have never met her (Helen) but she makes some lovely cards.
What a great way to spend a Saturday! I haven’t done any screenprinting since school (so that’s about 14 years) and as soon as I heard that squeak of the squeegee I was back in printing heaven. Here are some examples our teacher Cath did:
She showed us a few simple techniques, such as single and two colour printing, monoprinting, overprinting and printing using found objects.
You may know that I don’t work very neatly. I like mess and layers and texture and seeing how many different kinds of crap I can stick onto one piece. So screenprinting is quite a challenge for me. Here’s my first try, reacquainting myself with the workings of the screen and using a paper template.
What I liked was that screenprinting DOES in fact lend itself to mess. It’s not all ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ perfection. There’s plenty of scope for layering (although man, did that test the much underused left side of my brain!)…
And mistakes can always be cut up and made into something else. For example, you’re not really ‘supposed’ to overprint dark onto light….
and you need to make sure you press down the same amount all over….and use enough ink.
As pieces of work in themselves, these aren’t much, but I see much cutting, sticking, layering, stitching and painting on the horizon!
Oh, and I might even get my screenprinting kit from two Christmases ago and start actually using it.