Silk Screening, Part 2

Earlier this year I experimented with silk screening on the budget plan.  The results were so-so and I was eager to cover my tracks, so to speak, with more layers.

As always, my difficulties come in the technical aspects.  In the case of silk screening I plop down either too much or too little paint. This causes either incomplete shapes or paint blobs outside the lines of the shapes.

One good thing about imperfect samples is you’re not worried about ruining earlier work.

Here I overprinted Pond Scum (that’s the name of the color) over purple.

Some ginkyo leaves in Blue Hawaii over purple fronds.

More ginkyo leaves in Blue Hawaii over leaves in Pond Scum.

And, finally, Pond Scum over Recycle.

I like the two color effect which would have been even better if I had always started with the lightest color. And I’d be interested to know if there’s a special art school class in naming paint colors.

Silk Screening On A Budget

I never thought about silk screening  on fabric because it just seemed like too much special equipment and supplies.  Then I took a half day workshop on frameless silk screen printing.  Now I’ve made a printing pad, bought silk screen paint (Plaid), and cut some stencils.

Some friends, who also took the class, and I got together to try the technique on our own.  We used homemade stencils on synthetic organza as well as commercial stencils on screening.

The homemade ones use a paper backed adhesive vinyl available in rolls that you cut your design into using an Xacto knife.  Then you peel off the paper backing, stick the vinyl to synthetic organza, and iron the whole thing between layers of something nonstick like parchment paper.  Just don’t set the iron too high like I did. Vinyl meltdown will result.

The commercial stencils have much more fine detail (my knife wielding skills are rudimentary) as you can see from the dragons below.  Both types of stencils are reusable as long as you clean them after use in water and Dawn or Simple Green.

My efforts were uneven as I either laid down too much or too little paint.  We did mix our paint with shaving cream and had good results with that. As you can see, we got into that metallic purple fabric paint.

I plan to screen more on top of what I’ve done or experiment with Paintstiks and/or Inktense pencils.