Assignment 2: Screen Printing Stage 1

Stage 1: Sketchbook work:

I am very excited about this project but I have been warned that it is a tricky one to do at home.

The course textbook suggests exploring man-made structures, lines, abstract shapes, textures and flat colours. So I started sketching the old fixtures and fittings at my new house. The house has some retro objects, lampshades, heavily patterned tiles, curtains and glass doors. I am drawn to the glass items, which have very geometric textures. These provide very organic shapes with the change of light. I liked that. But sketching them was very tricky.

I saw this vase in an interior design magazine. I love the pattern on it, simple triangles.

My next inspiration came from drain covers. I photographed them during school-run. Very simple designs easy to apply to any template and the rusting iron background provided rich texture and lovely colours. So I am thinking, if I am going to employ a simple shape I need to enrich the pattern with colour and I need to work on the background.

S Payne - Drain covers - Sketchbook  

S Payne - Drain covers - Sketchbook

S Payne - Drain covers - Sketchbook

While working on sketchbook I am also getting my materials together. So many considerations regarding technique, the equipment and chemicals.  At my shopping trip to George Weil, I found a very useful book: ‘Screen Printing Layering Textiles with Colour, Texture and Imagery’ by Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan. They are Surrey based textile artists with studio name Committed to Cloth.  I read the book cover to cover. It introduces a lot of techniques, explains clearly the differences of working with Procion MX Dyes vs Pigment Dyes, and is full of visual examples. The artists focus on texture and colour rather then precise repetition of pattern.

S Payne - Drain covers - Sketchbook

After some consideration, I decided to purchase 2 screens and decided to work with both Procion MX dyes and pigment dyes. I bought a few primary colours pigments and dyes, along with a metallic and luminous pigment to have some fun.  

For at least 4 weeks, all I did was sketching and trying to develop these sketches into patterns. I used collage a lot to play with the image, changing scale, moving it around, and thinking of negative and positive spaces. I used some of these outcomes as templates in my printing experiments.