Sunday, June 21, 2009

Deconstructed Screen Printing

I've just finished a two day class today using Kerr Grabowski's method of "deconstructed" screen printing. Last week in preparation for the class I painted thickened Procion MX dye onto the backs of my silkscreens and let it dry.
On Saturday we began by pushing print paste (thickened sodium alginate) through the screens onto soda-soaked fabrics. The dried dye gradually breaks down and deposits onto the fabric. The resulting prints are very organic, multi coloured designs which are one of a kind and very exciting.

Susan had a blast!


They used cotton, silk noil, habotai, georgette and more. It will be fun to see the results once the fabrics are batched (time to allow the reaction to take place, usually about 24 hours) and washed!
We also painted soy wax onto the backs of the silk screens and pushed thickened dye through the screens, wonderful designs!

2 comments:

Marilyn League said...

These fabrics are wonderful! Recently my teenaged granddaughter and I experimented with soy wax,with great success, I must add, and want to try another technique. I think it's going to be the deconstructed screen printing, as I have been wanting to do that. Thanks for the inspiration.

Sondra said...

My favorite process, always a surprise and it looks like you had a blast. Love the colors. Thanks for sharing. Hope to take a workshop with Kerr someday.
Sondra
http://modernmarks.blogspot.com/