Creativity and all that gubbins...

I was updating my Etsy shop the other day. I haven't used it for quite some time and there is now a section where you have to tell potential customers about yourself. This can be quite cringy but I decided to have a little think about creativity. (I really did)! Jeremy Vine has been discussing the notion of what makes us human recently on his afternoon show on BBC radio 2. I only ever seemed to hear the trails for this show and never the actual discussion itself but it did leave me asking myself what the very nature of being human is. I came up with the notions of compassion, charity, a sense of spirituality, mortality and the desire for creativity.

It was the creativity bit that I was really thinking about when I was updating my Etsy page. My little girl, Emily, wants to be a writer. She loves words and the stories that can be conveyed. I hope this enthusiasm lasts. I have acquired this creativity bug. I'm not sure when it arrived but like a lot of people, I was taught to knit by my Mum who patiently used to pick up my stitches when I didn't have a clue how to resurrect my struggling creation. I still don't know how to pick up stitches and so knitting for me is a bit like tightrope walking without a net. How I miss my Mum!!! I also remember those knitting dolly 'toys' whereby you made a long, thin knitted 'sausage' but also remember that no one really had a clue what to do with the 'sausage' after it had been created. Any ideas on a postcard.... (or post me a link below)!

I now have a love of cooking, sewing and screen printing which I mentioned earlier. I started off my screen printing obsession with the purchase of a gocco from Japan. Infact, I loved it so much I couldn't bring myself to use it for ages. I'd take it religiously out of the box, look at all the components and then put it away again, waiting for a special day when it would be the right time to start the gocco printing.

I sold it in the end because I couldn't master the technique to produce quality prints. I was quite happy to let it go to someone else who could maybe create masterpieces. I then moved on to screen printing using large aluminium screens. Apparently whenever I say 'screen printing' I move my hands down as if I am pulling a screen. I hadn't really noticed until it was pointed out by my friend, Suzanne, from work!! I was trying to explain to another friend what screen printing actually is and to be honest I don't think I was very clear at all...so I thought I'd have a go now with the help of some pictures.

Obviously there needs to be a screen involved with different mesh according to the detail required in the final print. The higher the mesh count the more detail the finished image will have. The screen is then covered in certain areas to allow the ink/paint to go through in the area left unblocked. This can be done using several different methods.

One method is to paint the mesh in the areas you don't want the ink to pass through. This way the area left unpainted is the image which will go onto the paper, card or fabric.

This is good for large images and is great as it is easy to create at home.

Another method is to use a paper stencil. Again, this is more difficult if the pattern or image is intricate but is great in that it can easily be completed at home. The stencil is not permanent yet weakens every time an print is made.

It is fastened to the back of the screen and then ink applied to the other side and the squeegee dragged across the screen.

My favourite method is to use photo emulsion. A screen is coated with the emulsion; this needs to be done in a dark area as it is light sensitive. This is then left to dry and then you use light to expose an image onto the screen to make a stencil. The photo emulsion hardens where light hits it and will wash away where light doesn't hit it (leaving an image behind).

 

The image is placed on the light exposure unit with the coated screen on top. This is the 'set' by allowing light to be directed onto the screen.

 

 

Here the light exposure unit is being used to 'set' the image onto the screen.

 

The screen is then blasted with pressurised water to remove the emulsion and leave the stencil on the screen.

A squeegee is then used to drag the paint across the screen and print the image.

 Here's my set up at home so that I don't have to go to the studio every time.

And here's some of the prints created in the studio and at home.

Holidays ahead and screen printing

Well I have finally finished for the holidays. I had a few reports to 'tidy up' which seemed to take me forever but I now feel that I'm on my holidays and looking forward to taking some me time to catch up with a few friends and get a little bit creative. I was chatting to someone once (they'll remain nameless) who has a very utilitarian view of life and she said that everybody should aim to do a maths degree. I was a little bit shocked especially as we'd been talking about the film 'Shine' with Geoffrey Rush and the creative struggle that David Helfgott had endured. It leads onto my musings about art and design and what they are and the importance of them. At a very cynical level you could argue that art is  unnecessary and in some ways it doesn't perform the same function as registering a company for VAT or writing some school reports  but it's what makes us human, the desire for self-expression, beauty and to design and to create.  They found artwork in the cave paintings of the most primitive of our ancestors, didn't they? And the more you look the more you see design at a basic level everywhere from the design in our clothes to the packaging of our cereal to the more sophisticated aspirational Mac book air that my little Emily covets. It's blinking everywhere. It amazes me whenever I go to the National Gallery in London that people have the tremendous ability that they do but also that you can go and see the most extraordinary art collection in the world for free!! (Actually they suggest a donation which I do give but in theory you aren't obliged to).

A couple of years ago I was trying to think of a present that I might like for Christmas and I decided that I would like to do a workshop in screen printing. It seemed like the perfect present i.e. learning a new skill and let's face it you do get to the point where you have most of the material things you want. So Johnny H bought me a course of six screen printing lessons at Factory Four in Leeds under the guidance of the lovely Gina. They've since rebranded and it's called Inc. Workshop but they still offer courses in screen printing as well as furniture restoration, picture framing and they've even  got a laser cutter which sounds like another potential course at some point.

Here's a picture of the very place and if you live in the Yorkshire area then do have a look at their website; it's a really encouraging place where you can develop any latent ability you have.
http://www.leedscitycollege.ac.uk/index.php/services-projects/inc-workshop/

Inc. Workshop also offers the opportunity for a really reasonable yearly membership where you can pay hourly to use the facilities.

So I trotted along in a cold January, met some really nice people and learnt how to prepare a screen with photo emulsion; use the light exposure unit to 'burn a screen' i.e. fix an image on the screen; how to use a squeegee and transfer my chosen image onto paper, card and fabric.

 

And it really is enthralling, fun and life affirming. So much so that I've set up my little shop on folksy (please have a butcher's!! - click the link at the side) and got loads of screens and a few squeegies and a load of gorgeous ink. By the way the cheapest place I've found for ink is
http://www.rapidonline.com/Education/Daler-Rowney-System-3-Acrylic-Paints-73169

System 3 seems to be the best, cheap isn't always cheerful especially when it comes to acrylic ink. So I treated myself to loads of ink and have a screen printing table that I set up and use the workshop for the light exposure unit. I'd love to have one of these at home but they cost several thousand pounds and we don't have anywhere big enough to store it.

By the way, if you want some tuition then I can heartily recommend the lovely Karen Lewis from Blueberry Park. Karen is a designer maker with a penchant for screen printing. She screen prints her own fabric and makes really gorgeous things from it; e.g pencil cases, pouches, quilts, lampshades, infact anything!! She sells her stuff here
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BlueberryPark



 

 

 

But if that wasn't enough, she also runs workshops on the stencil method of screen printing and how to print on textiles. I thoroughly recommend it.

 http://www.blueberry-park.co.uk/