Anne Leon - Fabric Printing

Monday was excursion day for the Thea & Sami team and we were delighted to visit the lovely and very talented Anne Leon in her Byron Bay studio. I had the pleasure of meeting Anne when we were both exhibiting at the last Life Instyle trade show in 'The Dungeon' (so it wasn't all bad).

As we are planning to move into a larger studio soon, I wanted to visit another screen-printer to see what ideas I could adapt to speed up our production. I know that every textile designer/printer works in different ways and I can't thank Anne enough for her generosity in both time and knowledge!

Anne has a system that allows for one-person yardage printing. Here she is registering the screen for the design she is about to print.

A one-woman show; go Anne go!

While we will continue printing our fabrics with 2 people, I did like this idea of installing electric bar heaters that can be moved overhead and across the wet fabric edges.

This really speeds up production as it allows for the 2nd run of screen-printing to continue, after getting to the end of the first run so there is no waiting for fabric to dry before printing the spaces in between. This means there is no need to wash screens twice. (I hope that makes sense). Yay to that!

I will ask Rick to build me the drying system but I don't think I will be able to buy bar heaters right now as today is officially the first day of summer in Australia although it certainly doesn't feel like it. Has anybody seen heaters anywhere?

Washing large screens is one of my least favourite jobs although lifting them does keep your arms nicely toned as Birgit, Anne's assistant, demonstrates.

How beautiful is Anne's design?

Anne's latest passion is making these lovely silk garments by dyeing them naturally with leaves (think India Flint). This means that no two are the same. I am now the proud owner of the top (left) that Anne is holding. That is my new studio assistant Leisa sitting down and having a jolly good time.

If you are looking for someone to do yardage printing for you, Anne may or may not accommodate you, depending on her work schedule. You will find Anne's details here.

I should probably mention here that Thea & Sami will be exhibiting at the next Life Instyle show in Sydney. Anne will not. I know Sydney will be much better for us as all exhibitors will be on the one level and easy to find. You can register as a buyer/visitor here.

New Studio Update

Do you remember our old shed? It's still sitting in the corner of our backyard but hopefully not for long.

As this is the future site of our new screen-printing studio, I thought you may be interested in an update. We've gone through the long, council application process and have successfully addressed all of the environmental and other conditions and are now on the home stretch.

I'm kind of excited seeing the 'proposed development' sign erected outside our front fence. We've had a couple of calls from curious neighbours but without objections so everything seems to be on track.

If all goes well, we should be able to relocate by the end of the year. I am looking forward to working from home, not paying rent and especially to increasing our production capacity with a second yardage-printing table. Will you come to our grand opening?