Days 4 - screenprinting on Fabric

 On Monday we were able to have some experiments with Screen Printing on Fabric - one of the people famous for his involvement in Screen-print  is Andy Warhol.

Our work was designed to reflect some of our plans around Utopia/Dystopia project - for me I chose some images from my 'Dystopia' storyboard - I am looking at the imaginings and realities around the Panopticon of Jeremy Bentham.  



Storyboard for Panopticon
Here are 3 of the steps that are made

Step 1 - The Mask is attached to the frame - the masking tape on the edge  should ensure that Ink does not leak through










Step 2 - Ink is applied and the frame is flooded ahead of applying to the material







Step 3- A squeegee is used to spread the ink typically 3 passes with steady  pressure being applied


Here are my outputs, 2 buildings, Monitor watchers & Camera warning.













I found that the Screen Printing was a useful technique for the application I had in mind.



Reflections

One of the things that I found was that there was a lot of preparation and clearing up required, we worked in paper stencils and I gather from the session that other materials that can be reused (like Mylar) can make life easier, also now many people working in this type of printing now use a mixture of craft and technology (Computer) to create work.

When working in more than one colour it is necessary to dry out the fabric (in this case cotton) there are opaque colours  and  transparent (those that do not pass the colour underneath). 

I felt that with an appropriate colour selection (sepias and dark shades) the method could be useful for a Dystopian project
  
Again I'm seeing that I'm keen to connect up what I already know with the topic I'm looking at and also I detect a desire for narrative which perhaps the topic we've been given and my approach to it suggests (to me).

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