Screen Printing

I was glad to get back in the print room; the business and rhythm of the work suits me well and I wanted to see what my designs would look like in the flesh.

The first day was difficult, my colours didn't show up well even on the lightest of the fabrics I had prepared and so I was not getting the right 'feel'. I then re-mixed the colours with white or made them darker as appropriate and started to piece the images together. I printed over the paler base, and this made it look as if the shapes were 3D, or moving.

original pink creature below, white-pink ship above

purple over the pink creature worked better. black on top of the purple bricks makes it seem as if it is moving

I thought I should try a brighter background as well and it definitely adds the intensity seen in TRON. Again, the original dark grey lies below the black, successfully adding a sense of movement.

To work on a black background I realised that discharge printing was the most sensible option. This worked well and provided good contrast. When dry, the fabric had shrunk slightly, so the images on the screen no longer fit perfectly over the white shapes created by the discharge. This led to the shapes overlapping, and a slightly edgy effect which again suits the atmosphere of TRON and Daft Punk well.

Before steaming and washing

After steaming and washing with pigment print on top

With this cotton viscose fabric, I could only use a single, blue reactive illuminating discharge dye to add colour back in at the same time as stripping it away. The only other dischargeable fabric in the store was a silk, which I could have used a greater range of dyes with but it was grey and I needed black.

The blue dye shows up green after one steam.

After 2 steams and fixing by washing and drying. It needed an hour in the steamer for the second steam to turn fully blue.

To bring a new shiny texture and light to my designs I began to experiment with using foil. With 6 pulls of the Texiflock ST glue through the screen and 30 seconds in the heat press, the top layer peeled off easily and the images were clear. I tested small pieces first of all to make sure that this would work on the different fabrics. I quite liked the pieces left behind; they form a negative image of the one on the screen, and could also be used on fabric. I could trim round the edges closely and try using small amounts of fabric glue to stick it down, before putting it in the press.

I chose certain shapes for foiling, because they would mimic a shape already there, add another colour, move the viewer's eye around the fabric or to bring it out compared with the other ones.

 

Where there are 2 or more different foiled shapes in one sample I put them in the press
multiple times. This didn't spoil the appearance of the foil and meant I could modify things as I went.