Tuesday 26 January 2010

Lessons Learnt

I'm going to share some lessons learnt from last Saturday's screen-printing workshop.

Lesson 1: Inspiration can literally come from anywhere and everywhere. This image of a laundry basket was the starting point for Julie Palmer's design.

Here's Julie busily cutting out her stencil.

Add a couple of birds and wow! This is not your average run-of-the-mill tea-towel. I see future competition here. You can find out more about Julie at her blog Olive & Joy.

The bird images were borrowed from fellow student Victoria Bansey, who I must apologise to for failing to get on film.

This is one of Victoria's cute bird prints.

Le
sson 2: Using Permaset Aqua inks, you will need a 43T mesh screen for printing t-shirts and fabric. The "T" stands for the thread count per inch. Screen-printing with high thread counts will not allow ink to flow freely and will cause screens to dry out quickly.

Students often come from the Gold and Sunshine Coasts to our classes and we had a student from Germany last year but James Beattie has officially broken our record for travelling the farthest. He is visiting from England. James kept things simple with this abstract landscape print.

Lesson 3: Classmates make great screen-printing assistants if the teacher is hiding. James is holding the screen for Melissa Imsirovic who was printing her Ampersand design all over cotton jersey fabric. She will be sampling the printed jersey for her upcoming maternity wear range.

Lesson 4: You can easily print onto dark fabrics if you have the right inks. This was printed with Permaset Aqua Supercover inks. Although still water-based and solvent-free, they are not something I normally use for my fabrics as they are much more expensive and thicker than the standard range; fine for t-shirts but not so great for fabrics.

Lesson 5: Don't turn your back on your class. Students will kidnap your mannequin for their own evil purposes when you are not looking.

*Sniff* Bye Justine.

Screen-printing class update: Next 2 classes are fully booked but new date has now been listed for March 27th. Secure your place here.


8 comments:

Kate said...

Oh how I would love to do one of your workshops. They look like so much fun and a bit informative too. Oh well, one day maybe...

Victoria said...

Hi Kate

I'd highly recommend them - I was at the course on Saturday and it was lots of fun and now have the screenprinting bug!

Thanks again for the course Thea - will be in contact soon to buy my own screen :D

madder root said...

Good to know about the supercover inks. I hadn't tried them yet but I assumed they would be thick. I think I'll stick with the standard.
Still wishing I could make it to a class.

Jodie said...

Your classes always look like fun Thea...Your students work is great

posie blogs Jennie McClelland said...

Love the laundry basket design, SO clever. I get lots of ideas in the laundry. Love Posie

edward and lilly said...

It's so great to see what your students come up with, the washing basket design is so clever!

ECOINSPIRED said...

Your classes look like so much fun...I would love to be able to get to one some time.

Thanks for the information about the supercover inks...I did buy a smaller jar of black supercover recently to try and haven't yet...you may have saved me the time and grief, so thanks for that.

Kylie said...

That's a fabulous design! I'd love that all over a piece of fabric :) Glad the classes went well. K

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