On Wednesday and Thursday of last week I began my fellowship with alumna Kay Healy.
And, in only two days, I learned quite a bit!
My first day was focused on screen printing. I got to assist Kay with screen printing onto fabric, as well as paper. Working with fabric is tricky when you’re printing because it can stretch, whereas paper does not. So, I learned ways to prevent "double printing." I also learned how to "flood the screen," (fancy Printmaking lingo) which prevents the ink from drying out on the screen between prints, as well as how to clean the ink off of the screens and tools afterwards.
It was super helpful to see how Kay plans out her screen prints. For example- she began with a hand drawing of a chair on a large piece of paper. This drawing was too big to fit on a single screen- so she broke the image down into sections (arm rest, seat cushion, etc) which resulted in five different screens. So, you print each section at a time, realigning your fabric to each section, and then your end result is the entire image!
This was really helpful to see, even as a Sculpture major, because it teaches me to think ahead and plan things out! Process is important. While creating your work, or building it, it's important to think about all of your necessary steps ahead of time! If your artwork is large in scale, regardless of the media being used, you’re also going to need to think about how to break it down, store it, move it, etc.
Screen printing the chair onto paper
The original hand drawing of the chair is on the right,
and a completed screen printed fabric chair on the bottom left! (yay!)
On my second day, I learned how to reclaim the screens and how to use a sewing machine.
For reclaiming screens- Basically, if you are looking to reuse some screens AND get a workout- this is for you! It is a lot of work, but an important step. A little bit about the process: Make sure you're wearing safety glasses & gloves. Start by spraying down the screen with an emulsion remover. Kay uses one that is soy based, its more eco-friendly. Next, you scrub the emulsion off of the screen with a sponge. Then, rinse off the screen with water, and spray the screen down with a power washer to remove any remaining spots of emulsion. Emulsion is what blocks the ink from passing through the screen, so if you want to reuse it- you gotta clean it off entirely. You can check to see if there are any spots left by holding the screen up to the light.
Afterwards, I learned how to use the sewing machine!
Now, my knowledge of a sewing machine beforehand came down to, well, very little..
What I found is that it’s kinda similar- at least in my world- to operating a scroll saw. Except, with the sewing machine, it pulls the fabric through on it’s own, whereas with the scroll saw, you are in complete control of driving the wood through the saw. Also- note the foot pedal. Leave your lead foot at home. Just like with driving, I learned that you shouldn’t take a turn too fast!! But, thankfully, sewing is forgivable. If you make a mistake or go off course, you can always just remove the stitches using the seam ripper and start over. I helped Kay sew one of the frying pans for her installation.
The frying pan was sewn inside out, like you would do if you were making a pillow.
The frying pan after!
And so, the first two days were very productive! I'm really excited to be learning new skills, and I am looking forward to the rest of the summer!
Your description of Kay's screen printing processes is great, Monica-you've certainly taught me a few things! Glad to hear that you're learning new skills and looking forward to hearing more about your time with Kay.
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