overpacking and wishes granted

More on deconstructed screen printing with me! Diane and friends.  I don't travel light when I pack up to go to art camp.  A few years ago, I took all my thickened dyes and all my screens and a pile of soda-soaked fabric and really had a great time demonstrating for my friends.  They all come to art camp with their own projects but I usually manage to tickle them into trying something new.

Here's Nancy again printing with her own screens.  She lives in South Carolina now, so she doesn't bring as many supplies as can fit into a minivan. 

 

My table inside was so full of stuff I'd brought and it was such a beautiful weekend, I took the table I brought (!) and set up outside.  Lots of steps going in and out for supplies, screens, and more cloth.  Nancy and Susan chatting with me while I work.

Here's another venue - at a friend's home and we're printing on the driveway.  Loved those green gloves but they sprung a leak and I was marked for life - or maybe it was only a week.

Elisa and Pat seriously watching me work.  I try hard to keep the crowd entertained even while laying out the steps. They lightened up a bit when the demo was over and got started printing - deconstructed screen printing is fun!  And just look at the drying line running through the garage.

A lot of my screens are protected with green duct tape.  I like green and frogs.  In the beginning I washed out my screens and a lot of water collected inside since really duct tape isn't all that perfect or my taping wasn't - one or the other.  I tossed out a couple of wooden screens when I could feel the wood crunch and squish between my fingers.  My latest favorite screens have hardly any tape on them - I'll show you those in my next post.

Another venue with me demonstrating. I'm filling in spaces between the prints with extra dye.  It's green dye and I'm wearing a frog shirt.  :)   This time at the Contemporary Handweavers of Texas conference which are usually booked at a hotel.  I had listed all my "wouldn't it be nice" wishes when I put in the room requirements for my subject which was screen printing on handwoven fabric.  I got a classroom at a local art facility for my seminar with a sink and no carpeting on the floor plus this overhead mirror just like we used in college!  Well, almost like the one we had in the 60's. That one at Arizona State University was attached to the raised rolling table with more clearance underneath.  I banged my head on this one at least fourteen times.  Be careful what you wish for.

Diane - yarngoddess

laying down the prints

Good morning!  Diane back again, this time showing Nancy Warren's deconstructed screen printing. 

Nancy and I were members of a study group which met regularly to experiment with various techniques and projects.  We all were weavers who liked to branch out!  I showed them the video from Kerr Grabowski and we were off and running with breakdown printing.

In this example above, Nancy placed her screen right next to the previous print to cover the cloth completely.  Below is an example of one style of putting the dye on the screen that we called our Jackson Pollack period because we dripped the dye randomly around the screen and let it dry. 

 

Here's how the screen released - I think she went on to cover another cloth with prints from this screen because the drops were so juicy.

Nancy has had success in entering her work as framed art in several shows.  The photo below shows each print matted separately to emphasize their similarities and the progression of each pull.

Notice the lower one in this photo of Nancy at a gallery opening.  The prints overlap and  screens of different sizes are used to create the image.

Placement of the screen can be planned as you print or you can plunge ahead and consider it a design challenge later.

For basic information on deconstructed screen printing, select that Label on the right or click here. You can also read about the process in the December 2014 posts by Beth and Judy.

Diane - yarngoddess