. . . developed another passion

for screen printing. . . deconstructed screen printing, anyway. The photos are terrible, I know. . . but I haven't used the camera for so long and I'm sure the settings need to be adjusted. Bear with me here. . . The picture above shows probably the first pull I did ever. . . didn't turn out too badly, did it?





I'm pretty sure this is the same screen as the first picture, but I added some red, hoping to get a good rich brown, but I quite like this result, too.






And here is totally different screen, larger than the first one.





And I think this is yet another screen, but it could be the same as #3. This one is interesting to me because the thickened dye I used wasn't all that thick and it dripped down, leaving those charming little circles to print off.


I am learning a lot. I printed all these on tissue paper, although I have printed on other papers I have around the studio, too. I chose these photos based only on whether the pictures were blurred or clear. The print paste and the thickened dye were what I had on hand. . . I have not yet been able to find back the powdered dye I need to make a new supply, and this supply was old and probably not as effective as a new batch would be.


I learned that putting the thickened dye on the back of the screen and laying objects in it will result in a screen that will last longer than if you put the screen on top of the objects and pull through it. I'm learning that the thickness of the dyes and the print paste make a difference in the finish product. I also learned that you can monoprint with this technique, and I have even screen printed over the top of some small pieces of stretched canvas that were waiting to be painted. Now I know, too, to always wear those damned gloves or you will have colored fingertips.


Don't know what I'm going to do with this tissue paper. Probably use it for collages. I did take some photocopies of one piece on the new color printer at work (but for heaven's sake, don't tell anyone I did that) and the results were astonishingly good. Oh, it's so good to be back experimenting, and saying, "what if I. . . " again.