Making Messes

I’ve had screen-printing materials for a long time; in fact, I bought them back when I was working with glass, because my intention was to screen print enamels onto the glass.

Alas, I was scared off by not really understanding how to create images. All the instructions I found had to do with treating the screen with something then exposing it to bright light for so long with some type of really dark line drawing taped to it then . . . that’s about where I typically gave up and went to find something else to do (I have the same issue with the airbrush, which sits neat and clean in its nice little box, just waiting to be used).

So, I decided to take Lyric Kinard’s Screen Printing class at QU. I’ve taken a painting class online with Lyric, and I really like the information and ideas she shares. So far, the class is a lot of fun, and I’m relieved to finally be using my screen-printing stuff.

Here are a couple of prints using a newspaper stencil:

And some using freezer paper stencils that I cut a design into:

And some using masking tape (printed over some less-than-successful previous prints):

And some using a stencil cut from Con-tac Paper:

As you can tell, I’m still trying to get all the particulars down—how hard to press, how many passes to make, how to make sure I have enough paint on the screen.

And finally, my favorites. I cheated and skipped ahead to next week’s lesson, which uses thermofax screens. I had ordered these from Lyric and from Marcy Tilton. When they arrived, I couldn’t resist trying at least one on my own, so I used the “French 1920s Letter” from Marcy:

I have discovered that screen printing is really messy—actually, the process itself is not too bad, but geez! washing all that paint out of the screens! I panicked when I thought the red paint might permanently stain the porcelain bathtub.

Cleaning up the thermofax screens was MUCH neater. Of course, they don’t typically cover as much fabric as a larger screen, and they are MUCH more expensive than masking tape and newspaper, so I’ll have to show a little restraint, or at least hide the credit card statements :-)