Screenprinting Project 5.

My 5th screenprinting project is due Tuesday, and I just finished it this morning. This project is a portfolio trade, so everyone in the class will get one copy of everyone's prints. I did an edition of 20 + 3 artist proofs. Finished paper size is 11x11.

I had good intentions of taking pictures after each layer, but I forgot to do that for the last 3 or 4 layers because I was in a groove this morning.

From beginning to end:

 *insert a few layers here*

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. If you're wondering, the first few layers are knit stitch shapes, and the circular things are abstracted yarn balls. I need to get it properly photographed so I can include it in my portfolio exit review next week (ahhh!).

Also, I noticed today that my third screenprinting project was in one of the cases outside the class today. I don't know how long it's been up, haha.

P.S. Are you celebrating Wovember? It's still a bit too warm for the most part for a lot of wool here in Texas, but I wore (handknit) wool socks today!

-- Laura

Screenprinting Project 3 and Netting Workshop.

My third screenprinting project turned out much better than the second, but still not without its major flaws. I don't know why I can't keep everything clean! I've gotten a lot better though, and the only critique I got from my instructor was about technique.

There were two new techniques introduced: working reductively and split fountain. Working reductively is where you work in the same screen for each layer, just blocking out more and more area and getting more detail each layer. Split fountain is printing using two or more colors at once to create a gradient effect.

My first layer was one of three I did split fountain on, but its the only one you can really see it on. I didn't want a crazy rainbow print, so I did very subtle split fountains for the other two required layers.

I had every intention of taking pictures in between each layer, but I kept forgetting because I would get in the printing zone and just completely forget.

Here's the finished product. I'm still not good at putting enough pressure when I'm printing large areas, resulting in uneven layers. Meh. At least I'm improving.

In other news, if you follow me on Twitter, you may remember I said I was going to a netting workshop last Sunday. A classmate went to Penland this summer where she learned how to make nets, so she was kind enough to teach the rest of us.

I don't know if I'll ever use this skill, but it was kind of cool to make a little sample. I forgot to take pictures during the process, and this photo is the only one I have of the workshop:

I caught my friend Katy's (we were at her house for the workshop) kitten with my net sample! She looks so much like Othello when he was a kitten!

-- Laura

My Printmaking Project and I'm Finally Seeing Red.

As promised, here is my poorly-executed printmaking project. It's definitely better than my first one though. That means my next one will be flawless! (ha)

Today I spent most of my time prepping things for the workshop I'm assisting for this week. We have a visiting artist at my school, Janet Taylor, who was actually my surface design professor Amie's instructor when she was an undergrad. Janet came here to teach us about vat dyeing and taking out color while simultaneously adding a new color. I am beyond excited to learn about all of this!

One of the things I did to prep today was dye some silk for samples. I got to choose one of the colors, so I jumped at the chance to dye them red. I have a love/hate relationship with the color red. Red is my favorite color (my car's even red), but I have never successfully dyed something red. It always comes out pink, no matter how much dye I used or tweaked the ratios of color. I hadn't tried to dye red in over a year, so I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity as I would have not one, but two fibers artists over my shoulder who could help me.

Amie told me for about the millionth time that to get a good red, I should use a 1:1 ratio of scarlet and fuchsia MX dyes, and that I should use a lot. Janet agreed with this, and even though I swear I've done all of that before, but I did it anyway, hoping for a miracle. Well, no such luck. I was staring at hot pink once again in my dye bath. As I was admitting defeat, Janet came up and said that we weren't going to give up until we got it right. I took the silk out, and she added a good amount (about the same amount as one of the other dyes) of sun yellow. I was afraid it was going to be too orange, but to my delight after stirring it up and putting the silk back in, it appeared red! Real red, not pink-red!

And guess what? After washing the silk, it was still red!

I'm pretty sure my friends in my weaving class thought I was weird for running around showing everyone how red the fabric was, but I couldn't help it. I felt like my life was finally complete.

-- Laura

I'm Not As Good At Screenprinting As I Thought.

This weekend has been a busy one for me. I'm trying to get ahead in school because this next week on Tuesday and Thursday I will be the assistant in a dyeing workshop given by a visiting artist (I'll talk more about that in a later post).

This workshop is all day Tuesday and Thursday, meaning I will miss my printmaking class those days, or in other words, 6 hours of studio time. Our current project is due the following Tuesday, meaning I get no class time to work on it.

I actually would rather work outside of class time since it's a lot less crowded, so it's not an issue for me. I've been screen printing for a couple of years now in my fibers classes and had gotten pretty good at it, so I figured I could crank out the five layers I needed in a few hours yesterday. That was not the case.

There are a lot of things different about the way the fibers screenprinting goes and the printmaking screenprinting goes, and so I feel very clumsy and out of my element trying to get used to everything. For one thing, I have a much smaller workspace than I'm used to. I cannot keep anything clean because I'm not used to everything being so jammed together. In fact, I actually had to go buy more paper yesterday because I ruined so many sheets.

 I got to spread out a bit because there weren't as many people in the studio yesterday.

I ran across the street to one of the off-campus school supply stores that stocks the norm (textbooks, pencils, UNT shirts...) but also has a large art supply section. I figured that since it was Saturday, I could run in and out fairly quickly and didn't even bother taking off the apron I was wearing since no one would really see me.

I walk in and there is a very long line. I had forgotten that it was game day. Not any game day, but the first game day of the year and the first game ever in the brand new stadium. Everyone was buying UNT shirts. I sadly got in the long line so I could ask for my one sheet of Rives BFK. While I was in line, I kept getting a lot of weird looks and I didn't know why. And then I looked down.

I took this picture while standing in line.

I had forgotten I was wearing the apron. This apron isn't mine, but a classroom apron, so there's no telling how old it is. Hardly any of the actual fabric is showing on this thing. I took a full picture later so you could see how I looked:

It doesn't help that the apron was longer than my shorts and it looked like I wasn't wearing pants from the front.

The guy in front of the in the line buying a - surprise! - UNT shirt turned to me and said, "Uh, so do you, like, paint a lot?" to which I responded, "Oh, no, I'm in printmaking." I think that confused him because he didn't look like he understood what I meant, but he turned around after that and didn't try to say anything after that.

Finally when I got back to work I started getting in the grove of things a lot better, but my prints still aren't perfect. If I had a perfect print on one layer, I'd get a drip on the next layer on that sheet. At least the craftsmanship has improved since my first project last week.

I only managed to get three layers done in the three hours I was in the studio. At least I'll be able to finish the last two today and be done with it. I'll take a picture of the best one and post it... maybe.

-- Laura