Deconstructed Screenprinting with the Fiber Junkies

Our Fiber Junkies group met again yesterday for another round of Deconstructive Screenprinting. We work in Vals garage and depend on hot weather to dry the screens quickly. We certainly had the hot weather - think it hit 90, but the screens dried in minutes giving us a chance to do lots of printing.

We started with all sorts of wonderful things to create texture - things such as cardboard, plastic and iron grids, rick rack, plastic doilies, shredded paper, texture plates - Anything goes as long as it's 1/4"thick or less. You start to view the world differently along with strange looks from people who see you collecting and getting excited over the craziest things!

I love using live plants such as the fern seen below.
Mary cut some circles out of textured cardboard and also used some spikey plant leaves.
A blank screen is placed over the textured items and a thickened dye is "squeeged" over the top, creating lots of texture on the screen as you go along.
After letting the screen dry, a clear print paste mixture is squeeged over the top of the screen which has been placed on soda ash treated fabric. The paste mix loosens the dye to release it on the fabric.
And here are some of Mary's - Every time we do this, there is always a "favorite" texture item, think this time, it was the round iron grid - It's very cool!

As you swipe each print (a screen will give you 3-4 prints), each one changes depending on the amount of dye that is released onto the fabric.
And each one is a little different than the one before, but work together and so interesting.
I did a set of 4 using blue dye. The first print is always my least favorite as it releases a minimum amount of dye and sometimes too much white is showing.
That wonderful "spikey" shape on the bottom was a piece of cardboard which was used as packing material for something round.
This is the third printing - a little darker.
And the last one which has too much dye and not enough white areas.
Stay tuned for our lunch in the treetops, great dessert and a wonderful show and tell.