It's been a Bad Day at the Office today...

Last week's screen-printing class was cancelled due to a technical hitch in the workshop, so as I'm sure you can imagine, I was chomping at the bit to get back in there today.

I had quite a pile of designs since I'd had twice as long to play around with them, so I was already in a quandary as which one I was actually going to use.

I was really liking my latest design here on the top, but decided to go with last week's hexie design as it would work better in this week's task of Colour Alignment. Also I had incorporated a lot of different patterns in this and was keen to see how they would look in print.

We arrived, prepared and exposed our screens with the 2 layers of the design (sorry, omitted to take a photo here) and got ready to print the first layer.

All good so far...

I was really happy with how the hexies in the first layer turned out and was feeling rather excited at adding the second layer of design.

And this is where it all started to go wrong...

The second layer wouldn't line up with the first and I realised I had put the pattern upside down on the light unit and so had produced a back to front screen...grrrr. (You can see above, the hexie bottom left prints over the yellow one.)

And because it took me a while to realise this, in the meantime the screen dried out and consequently wouldn't print through.

I was a little bit frustrated, to say the least, that I wasn't able to execute the lesson properly and get any satisfactory prints.

BUT...

If I am going to take any positives away from this week, it is to realise that there is a lot to learn and remember with every process and with every screen print. It really didn't matter that I had made mistakes. The finished pieces are for my journal, not for producing any perfect specimens. There is (hopefully) plenty of time for that and what it has enabled me to have is a perfect, in it's own way, example of problems that can occur and how to avoid or rectify them.

Next week is the last week of the course. We are using this week's design, hopefully the right way, to print onto fabric, which is very exciting.

And hopefully the mistakes that have come up this week will enable me to do that pretty much as perfectly as I am capable.

I was rather sad today as screen printing class was cancelled due to a technical hitch.

The plus side of this is that class will last a week longer.

The downside is it will be a week longer before I can get into the workshop and get creating and producing.

Not that I think I'm ready for that...far from it. But what I am ready for is being able to be let lose and try out all the things on my ever-growing list of ideas that I have.

I was however a very good student and spent some time today sketching for the 2 colour design we were supposed to be doing and will now (hopefully) be doing next week.

This isn't a completed design. It may not even make it to printing stages, but it was fun playing around with patterns and seeing it grow.

You may see this one printed next week...you may see something along these lines...knowing me, you will most probably see something completely different.

I've been enjoying some sketching this weekend in preparation for next week's Screen Printing class.

Last week we started on colour alignment - printing a 2 colour design and aligning up the second colour on top of the first. We used a design that Gina brought and next week we are to bring a 2 layer design of our own.

My sketchbook is full to brimming of all sorts of doodles and designs and I'm trying to narrow down which I will do next week. I think I'm down to one of these 2.

Again, I'm trying to not get too caught up in getting the perfect design, but using something that will allow me to experiment with the process.

I've drawn the second layer on tracing paper and I actually love seeing the design split in two. I am excited about next week's class and experimenting with a 2 layer print and looking forward to experimenting with more of the designs in my sketchbook.

Fun, fun, fun...