Craft Class - Screen Printing

Last Sunday I went to a craft class at Two Little Magpies. You may (or may not) remember that I've done craft classes at this lovely little handmade shop before.  Once again, the standard of the class was high and it was great fun.

I usually just take photo and whack them in my blog.  This time, a lot of them were taken sideways on, so I tried rotating and cropping a little.  They're looking very odd in this post as I write... I'm hoping they publish ok!  If not, I'll try to redo them.

We were learning to screen print using paper stencils.  We each had a handmade frame.  I thought this was genius, I may just have to make my own!

We cut stencils out of paper and placed them on top of a sheet of paper, under the frame.

Then we squeegeed paint on.  It was acrylic paint with a paint medium mixed in.  I didn't think to take any photos of this stage.

Ta dah!  I used copper paper and a turquoise paint.

You can use each stencil several times, so I added some metallic copper paint into the mix.  I made several more after this, adding a different colour in each time, including a bright pink, but they didn't come out great.  I put the excess paint into a little tub and it made the most amazing metallic purple colour!

Next we were let loose on the shop's stack of paper stencils.  Some hand cut, some cut using a die cut machine.  I found this circles template and picked out some little images to put in each "window".

I printed in silver on black.  I love this!  I'm so chuffed with this stencil/picture/paint and paper combination.  I did a couple more, then started to experiment.

Silver paint on red.  I'm also pleased with this.

Silver on grey, this didn't come out so well.

Possibly my favourite of all.  I used bright pink on orange paper.  Because I couldn't wash the screen between uses as the stencils were stuck to it, some of the silver from previous prints bled through.  I love the effect.

I had a vision of a train of dots in my hand mixed metallic purple on top of the black print.  I got a hole punch and some scrap paper and made a stencil.

I practiced first on the failure print.  I didn't like it.  Experiment over.  I'm glad I tried it on the print I didn't like!

The screens have to be washed between stencils, but it's a quick job, so I thought I'd have a go with some more of the stencils.

One negative gem, one positive.  A mixture of copper and silver paint.  Not exactly sticking to its own side!

I printed these triangles and balloon intending to print over the top, but ran out of time.  Actually, I did another and I DID print over the top - looks like I left that one in the shop as I don't have it!

This was a fantastic workshop, I love Two Little Magpies as a workshop venue and I really enjoyed screen printing, I just wish I were a bit more artistic.  Maybe when I've finished decorating my craft room (yes, still ongoing!), I'll have time to make a frame and experiment some more.

speed craft part 2

So it appears I haven't posted in nearly 2 weeks!  Do you want to know why?  I completely forgot!  Oh dear, I hope this isn't a slippery slide into old age....

In my last post I told you about the first half of the day at Speed Craft, you can read it here if you are so inclined.  I went with the lovely Jane from Loopy's Place.

Our fourth activity of the day was with Katie Almond, an incredibly talented ceramics designer who I've taken several workshops with.  I had a bit of a wobble when she asked if I'd left mum at home as mum usually accompanied me...  But I powered on and got on with the job at hand, the hanging plaque above.  This is the piece in wet clay and painted with the glazes.  I'll show you the finished item when it comes back from its firing.  I felt like doing a house in a heart to represent my renewed love for my lovely old Victorian house.

The last activity of the day for us was lino cutting and printing.  I've done lino cutting a couple of times now, having taken a class or two a while ago.  I decided to represent my current lifestyle and cut out a bottle (of vodka, I don't like wine!) and a cocktail glass.  I drew both freehand so they're a little rough around the edges.

We used the finished stamps with ink brayered onto tiles rather than ink pads as I've done in the past.  I printed on some book pages and we used the results to make a little collage.  Sums me up rather well!