I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. Wait a minute, resists were part of the last class!

I am having a great time. Today was day 2 of the Screen Printing Intensive. I didn’t have time to post yesterday. I had a meeting of the web site re-design committee at Trinity and then Mr C and I went out to dinner. I came home and worked on preparing some black and white images for photo emulsion screens that we made today.

Yesterday, we did freezer paper stencil screen printing. Here is my stencil in progress. Once it is cut, it is ironed to the screen.

I saved the inside pieces which I ironed to a screen today, but was not very successful so Judy, the instructor is going to help me repair it. The dye was seeping under the freezer paper.

Here are my prints that have been steamed and are waiting for the washout.

Yesterday, I also prepared a screen with photo emulsion. This has to be done quickly in a dark room. The screen is then put in a covered area to dry. Because I had a large screen, I did two images. One of aspen tree trunks and one of pomegranates. The images have to be black and white – no gray. They are then copied to acetate. Back in the dark room, the images are placed on a light table and the screen is quickly laid on top. The whole thing is weighted and covered. The lights are then turned on to expose the image – takes about 4 minutes.

Then, the images were carried in a box to the dye studio where the unexposed emulsion is washed off.

Here is the screen, after I had done my aspen prints.

Here the aspen prints on gray cotton and organza. The aspens are the white areas.

And, the pomegranates. Tomorrow, I am bringing in some red fabric so that I can print these with black or dark red dye.

I also had fun making a torn paper print. I did several offset prints in different colors. I love the layering that I got. I don’t know what it will look like when I wash it. To make the screen, I tear little rectangles in a sheet of newspaper and tape it to the screen. Once you start screening, it just stays plastered on the screen and you can use it over and over, but you can’t wash it so you have to deal with mixing colors of dye, which I love to do anyway.

The makeup of this class is very different from the last class. Reva and I and one other woman are the only really mature women in the class. The others could be my daughters. I really am enjoying them. I think they get a kick out of me and my warped sense of humor.

Tomorrow, we get to play with discharge paste. I am going to be happy again.