Guess what I did yesterday????? I learnt to screen print (well the basics anyway!)
I woke up bright and early (for me and for a saturday morning), got my self ready, hopped in the car and started my little crafty adventure!
After stopping for petrol and provisions for lunch (and a pie for breakfast, bad I know) I hit the road for my 45 minute drive to Pasco Vale.
It was a fairly straight run there, after I realised where I was going, which took a lot of the stress out of it, I hate going to new places, I worry that I'm going to get lost, which means I'll be late, and I HATE being late. And no I don't have a GPS, I had one and it sent me on a wild goose chase so I took it back from once it came! Granted it was a $99 jobbie from coles, but it's ruined me fur any future GPS that may come into my life! Any way I digress..
I finally arrived (with about 15 minutes to spare, thank you very much). I was the first one there, met Laura from
Learn 2 Screen Print and two other students (Helen from
Chickaboo 8 and Peta) and a assistant (Bex) arrived soon after.
We quickly got to know each other and I felt comfortable straight away, I love being around creative people, it always brings the best out in me, they're my peeps!
After a quick but concise and informative introduction to screen printing we got started picking out our first design of the day, these were to go onto cards. I had a lot of trouble deciding on a design, there were just so many cute ones, I was tossing up between deer or a blue bird/swallow. I finally decided on the bird pattern as it was more intricate and I wanted to test myself. (Also the bird has special meaning to me relating to my little girl).
We got tracing using just good old contact paper (yup, the same you use to cover school books!). BTW I want me a light box, just sayin...)
We then readied our screens, applying the stencil, making sure all the edges were smooth as to prevent bleed. Then using brown masking tape we masked off the remaining screen just leaving the part we cut out.
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| Masking process (this one was my second stencil we did later in the day). |
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| Underside of bird screen masked. |
Then it was time for printing!!!
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| Printing with the bird stencil |
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| Printed! |
How pretty is that blue, it has a shimmer quality to it which I think lends itself perfectly to the birds.
After we had printed our cards, we then leant the process of cleaning the screens. We then sat down for some lunch and then it was on to the second screen!
The process is very similar to the first, this time we used a different table (padded). I forgot to bring any thing with me to do extra prints on but Laura was lovely and let me do a few try's before I printed on the calico bag, I think I might make them into some pillows.
So here's what I ended up with:
Too feaking cute!!!
So that was my day learning the basics of screen printing, I had a ball and it has inspired me to take it further! I actually have just (as of Friday) enrolled to study textile design and development at RMIT next year, (so I would love all your positive thoughts and crossed fingers!) and doing the workshop yesterday cemented that this is what I want to be doing as a career!!!!! I'm also planning on setting up a home studio (where not too sure) with dad so we can start playing around with ideas, so more on that soon.
If you would like to have a go at screen printing, if it's something you've always wanted to try or want to give something new a go, I highly recommend going and doing Laura's workshops, they go all the way up to Advanced workshops so there is so much more to learn. She's an awesome teacher and she makes you feel so at ease. You can contact Laura at Learn 2 Screen Print
here or
here. Laura also has her own market line called Mesh, you can find her gorgeous items at craft markets, contact her for more details. There is a beginners workshop at the Substation in newport on the 19th November so if you get the chance I suggest you book your spot.
Thanks Laura for such a wonderful day, I learnt heaps and will be encouraging everyone who even utters the words, screen and printing to go to you!
Till next time, keep crafting xx.
NB: All photos are courtesy of Learn 2 Screen Print apart from the last two.
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