Silkscreen printing workshop II

Yesterday it rained horribly again. When I left my son's school to go to Tiong Bahru where the silkscreen printing workshop was held, it was just starting to rain. Since I took the train, I did not get wet. When I reached Tiong Bahru, I saw that it didn't rain at Tiong Bahru at all. I left Tiong Bahru in the late afternoon to go home and it still wasn't raining. When I reached my home guess what? It was still raining horribly. I think I just found the one place in Singapore that has managed to escape the rain gods.

Yesterday's silkscreen printing was done using the Block-Out method.

First we have to show what we want to print.

JoE (Monster Gallery) the teacher said:

Bird again?

Ah yes. Bird again. JoE gave some advice on fixing our pictures so it will print better.

Here's my traced bird. I forgot to bring a couple of things. But I remembered to bring my screen.

If your picture has clear white and dark boundaries, then it's not hard to paint. For my print, I wanted a what-you-see-is-what-you-get. So I painted out the white spaces. The finer areas like feet and eyes were slightly tricky. But I have steady hands. (I embroider after all!)

Here my bird is all bandaged up.

My first print. I nailed the angle of holding the squeegee. I even got the eyes!

This was my second print. I knew I didn't have enough ink but I did not want to wait for the ink. That's why you see some faded tail tips. But it's a good effect. I like it. I gave this print to JoE to put up on his wall of fame.

JoE brought out the big guns. A custom silkscreen printing device.


I enjoyed the workshop. I felt I understood everything really well. Next week I'll print on some fabric. I'm excited by the possibilities.