When it comes to illustration and anything creative,I love trying new techniques and learning new skills. There is one technique that I have been really wanting to learn for a long time - screen printing. I love the results you can get and the seemingly endless applications. So over the Australia Day weekend I finally got a little taste of all things screen printing when I did a 4 day course at Harvest Workroom.
And it probably goes without saying that I LOVED it. It was a jam packed 4 days but I loved that it was fast paced, hands on and just really fun. From designing to cutting our stencils, to mixing colours and the actual printing, seeing everyone ideas come to life reminded me what I love about design.
I'm pretty hooked on this whole screen printing business and can't wait to do some more when I do this class in April and also in my home set up. In the mean time here are a few pics of the work I did at the course. There aren't too many because I was too busy washing screens and mixing colours.
Thanks to Emma, Jess and Lara from Harvest for the amazing class - if your are thinking about learning to screen print I highly recommend checking out their classes.
My first stencil design - I was going for a sort of geometric mountain range look. The pic on the right is the two colour version I did on the last day - sort of a Mr Squiggle-ish two way mountain range effect. You know, upside down upside down? (Yes I am referencing a kids show, yes I am that cool)
My two colour tea towel design. I have had this idea floating around in the back of my mind for a while and finally found the perfect time to try it out. Now this took a whole lot of after class cutting to cut out the tiny homes - the teepee, caravan, house and light house - and the lettering for 'home is whenever i'm with you'. I admit I kind of got over excited with this one but hey biting off more than I chew is sort of my thing. I'm really happy with how this turned out and have plans to print some more soon! Ps - how awesome does the stencil look up on the wash basin?
We also learnt how to do a repeat pattern which completely did my head in until I could see it coming together while I cut the stencil. I went with a bit of a cowboys and indians design with mountains, teepees and a few arrows thrown in for good measure. I chose a deep forrest green for this and I am still really surprised at the result. I'm thinking of making a some kids clothes or cot sheets with this - all in the pipeline of course!
And this is one of my 'home is wherever I'm with you' tea towels as a two colour print. My favourite part is the little light house and boat!
