Learning to Print

I have really enjoyed the challenging process of learning to print, and thought I should reflect on my experiences so that the next time I am in the print room I can produce good quality work efficiently.

Learning from the embroidery unit I tried to go with the flow more and not feel interrupted when learning several new things at once. It was difficult, being shown several printing techniques and learning photoshop and illustrator from scratch in the space of a few weeks but I managed to take in the information and focussed on how I could then go on and use it to develop my work.

Working in the print room has taught me many things that will be useful in the future:

use a small squeegee as it makes things a lot easier
wash screens as infrequently as possible
have a plan as to which fabrics to work on and which colours to use
work horizontally in the space rather than vertically (more fabric pieces can be pinned out at once)
it is better to use reactive dye to make backgrounds at the start of a project
think about working in layers rather than one final result
keep everything clean so nothing gets accidentally stained
check surfaces before putting fabric down
always wear an apron and tie back hair
when using white pigment work quickly to get as many good prints as possible from one motif
use 2 screens at once so that no time is wasted
test out dyes on fabric for colour when mixing them
try to book the same table for 2 days in a row to avoid putting a backing cloth down twice
wear waterproof shoes, as they will get water on them in the screen wash room
bring everything you could need with you
mix all your colours before starting to print
have a wide variety of colours, light and dark
book a table far enough in advance; before a deadline it gets busy

For motif development it would have been helpful to see how my motifs all worked together before putting them in to be put onto a screen; I didn't use one of my motifs because it didn't look right next to the others, and so there was wasted space.

To speed up working, I used a heater to dry fabric when appropriate, and covered any almost dry prints with newspaper while I printed the next shape onto fabric. This enabled me to quickly build up layers of colour without contaminating the fabric side of the screen.

Printing has taught me to not be afraid of using bright colours in a bold way; to begin with, prints that I deemed busy were seen as simple by the tutors, and comparing them with my photoshop work I can see why. Although it will always take longer to build up an image by screenprinting, it is worth creating an interesting background and using multiple motifs to make pieces bolder and busier. When I started to do this,  my work became more interesting and exciting.