Hiatus

I'm taking a break from posting till next year. Then I'll be back full force. Enjoy whatever holiday you enjoy!

Junky for Learning: Screen Printing.

On to the actual screen printing class at Sector67.

 

 After messing around with images, I came up with some that I was satisfied with. I got some input from my kids and picked the owl (bottom right) and the Villain (top right) as my top contenders.  

When I got to the class there was a good hour that felt like nails on the chalk board to me, if I'm being honest and I guess I am.  

I hadn't realized that I needed to bring the images in digital format.  Neither had anyone else (There were four of us) since that information wasn't actually shared with us.  So the instructor had to run around helping us get the images the way they needed to be.  For me, this entailed scanning and Photoshopping to get something that would work.  I didn't take any photographs at this point.  I was busy gnashing my teeth.

So, you'll just have to take my word for it that it brought us to this.  We got our images figured out and then printed them onto a transparency sheet which we then taped to a screen that had been coated with a photo emulsion - the red stuff.  I know, I'm sorry. I skipped over much of the fun part there. 

This is the part when I started to relax again.

The screen got placed in here.  It's a light box.  The top is fabric and has a vacuum dealy that sucks the air out so that the screen is pressed snugly up against the light. 

Not that it matters but that's not me.  It's another participant who was nice enough to let me take her picture a bunch.

After three minutes of light exposure, we pulled our screens out.   The red stuff that was exposed to the light hardened.  The areas that were covered (by the lines of the image) hadn't.

The parts that hadn't hardened washed right out with water.  That left us with with a cool stencil that will last for up to 1000 prints.

 

Here he is right after his bath

 

And here he's all dry and upside down so that the stuffing is running to his head.

 

Moving right along.  He was clamped down over my fabric and ink was plopped by his feet.  

 Taking the squeegee, I pulled the ink over him several times.

It was a little hard on the hands.

The screen was hooked up to this crazy contraption.  It's like a lazy Susan with four clamps.  What was great about it was that you could pick the screen up and check the image and know that the screen would return to exactly where it had been if you needed to squeegee again.  Which I always did.

Tada!

The very nice instructor said I could make as many as I wanted and I, of course, had brought an excessive amount of fabric.  I made eight villains but exactly at 11 (2 hours after the class was supposed to end) I turned into a pumpkin and all but ran out the door to get home to bed.  Of course, having run out so quickly, I left my phone (After annoyingly taking so many pictures with it) and had to turn around and go back to get it again.  You just do not leave a phone at a hacker space overnight.



I did also make a screen of the owl.  The instructor said I could take this one home (The villain was on screen he used more often so he needed it back) to use.  I didn't print any owls that night but this screen is in my garage awaiting my attention.

It was a rough start but I would totally take the class again.  I learned so much and the instructor was great.  I think I'll make some tote bags and pillows with my screened images since I made them on canvas.  I'm kinda tempted to open my etsy shop again and try to sell them.  We'll see.  Even typing that out makes me cringe a bit.

But I'm a junky for learning how to do new stuff!

Thanks For Humoring Me

On Thursday night, I took a screen printing class at Sector67.  I was supposed to show up with an image ready to print so I spent a little time on Wednesday and Thursday coming up with something.  I'm not used to doodling in a way that leads to something concrete so it was a new experience for me.

 

My first instinct was to draw a bird, but I coudn't get this out of my head. 

 

 Damn you Portlandia!

 

 So, I dragged out my inkstone, ink and brushes to play with and see if I came up with any ideas.

He's a water pitcher.

But, even with this great company, after ten minutes of mixing ink, it was immediately obvious when I put the brush to paper that this was not the right medium for screen printing. At least not for my very first time.

They are fine, I guess, but birds and squiggles?  I really wasn't sure how that would translate to the screen print since I had no experience with it.  I wanted something super simple.

I looked up and saw that I had even more company than I realized, these guys were all lined up on the couch, almost as if they were posing.

Check it out!  They were totally posing.

I also went back through my old blog posts and found some other critters to draw.  I was really happy with the combination of simplicity with personality.  I stumbled upon my images.  Next time, actually screen printing process pictures.  I realize that a post about coming up with a doodle may not be the most interesting thing to people who have done it before but it's new to me, so thanks for humoring me.  :)

I Do Love the Ponder

I made this necklace last week and wrote a whole blog post about it using my phone.  Then I deleted it by mistake and spent a shocked 30 seconds realizing the implications of phones not having "ctl z".  

I don't think I'll use the phone to blog again.  

Anyhoo - Last week a friend and I ran a jewelery making workshop at the library.  The idea was to use old jewelry and hardware to make new creations but almost everybody skipped the hardware.  That's my favorite part!  But, whatever works for people, works for people.  

I used to make and sell my jewelry but have gotten distracted by how many other really fun things there are to make in this world; it was a kick to make some again. 

In fact, the workshop was so popular that we all decided to do it again in January. It's not up on the web site yet but when it is I'll post a link.

Tomorrow, I am taking a screen printing class.  I'm supposed to bring in a simple image to use and have been pondering and pondering.  So much fun to do, I do love the ponder.  

So, today I think I'll try to make something.  I'm tempted to pull out my ink stone and calligraphy brushes but I'm not sure how that'll translate to screen print.  Then again, I'm all about the "only way to find out is to try it" theory.  

Yes, I feel it, the time to make a mess is upon me...again. 

A Midwestern Conundrum

I got an invitation/request to donate something to the ReStore Art Show/Auction next year.  They asked for another doll but, since I haven't been making them lately, I offered them a quilt instead.  They said yes.

I'm a little overwhelmed with the idea of making something new but I'm pretty sure I only feel that way because it's so close to Christmas right now.  I don't have to start anything till afterwards.  But it occurred to me today that I could just donate this older quilt.  

I'm proud of it and all it really does right now is hang on a wall.  Someone, somewhere might really get some use out of it.  I'm pretty sure I feel that way because I'm from the Midwest and tend towards being practical even when I don't want to be.  Plus, I LOVE ReStore and want to support them.

What I don't know is what how to price it.  It took for freakin' ever.  Whether I make a fresh quilt or not, pricing is going to be hard. 

Any advice?  I could really use some.

Also, here's a bonus photo of the last drawing I made in my last Figure Drawing class.  Looking at it now, I can see that her neck looks crazy huge but I'm very proud of the hair.  I'm trying to decide if I want to take the class again.  It was really fun but not particularly practical.  Again, such a Midwestern conundrum. 

Cloth Instant Book

One last Instant Book made for displaying at my Saturday program.   I mentioned this one earlier so this could be considered to be more follow up, right?  I'm growing up. Here's the front cover of the book. 

 

I randomly used images from a pair of pants that I found at Dig N Save and cut up.  I want to know who thought: You know what will make great pants: Pictures of people!  It's whack-a-doo and will not be seen walking around in a town near you because those pants are now a book. 

There's something you don't hear every day. 

 

Next pages.

 

The book in the book.  In staring at these randomly placed images while sewing on and playing with the book,  I kind of came up with a story/non-story thing.  So I used my daughters junky old typewriter (Best kind for this project) and typed it up.

 

Then I stapled the cut up pages into the paper Instant Book that lives inside the cloth Instant Book.

 

 

 

 

 I hope I was clear enough about this story really making no sense.  I embroidered a little yellow and green thing onto each page and that thing is what the story is about.  Really. 

Then I just stapled the paper book into the cloth book. 

And the back cover.  

In sewing it up, I embraced the messy!  But that's hardly worth mentioning because I always do. I feel like I'm pretty well set for my program.  One whole person has signed up...that's actually pretty typical for a library program.  People tend to sign up at the very last moment so wish me luck.  I'll run it no matter what. 

Seven!

So, I wrote a little comic book 'zine thing.  I'll use it as a display for my Instant Book Program that I'm running at the Library this weekend.  I just found out that the Madison 'Zinefest is this weekend and I might bring it there, too.

 

Here's a page done just in pencil.  I only posted one picture here because it's not very interesting to see them all. I thought it would be but, no, it's just repetitive.

I went over the pencil with a superfine sharpie (truly a super and fine marker - I love them).

Cover

Actually, I decorated it a little bit more - it looks so boring here.

 I have to preface this with these disclaimers:  I don't obsess on my school years; this story happened to come up as the result of a Lynda Barry workshop.  I was a weird and nervous child but I'm fine now, thank you.  This story is totally true.

I did add the words "Math Test" on this one.

Scary Miss O.  I used to have nightmares about her.

And I added the words "Test Results" because it wasn't really clear.

 

Here's the whole shebang before it gets "instant book-a-cised"

 I made a few copies just to see if it would work.  I'm going to make some more now that I've seen them.  It was truly fun. 

Follow Up!

I realize that I bring things up here sometimes and then never mention them later.  So, here are some things that require a little follow up:

Lynda Barry workshop:  Soooo fun.  I was inspired to write a little 'zine in Instant Book format but haven't finished yet (Yes, this follow up requires follow up - I see that now).

I brought my bargello quilt to the Modern Quilt Guild and we did our swap.

My partner was very gracious.  I was hoping there would be a picture on Facebook that I could use here but it never got posted.  She made me a lovely purse with my denim scraps.  I think I'll keep going to the meetings after all. 

The shoe insert idea?

Total bust, didn't work at all.  They made the orthotics slip all over the place.  Oh well.  They are cute but I don't know what to do with them now. 

Hand Map thingy: 

Back burner.  I am going to move the hand to a larger backing piece. I am too busy preparing for two different library craft programs to work on a project with no foreseeable purpose.  I don't think I'll even have time to make Christmas gifts this year which is totally freaky. 

I'm sure there are more but I can't think of them now.  Pictures of the 'zine and the purse will be here soon...I imagine...