Recycled Screen Making

Making screens from recycled mesh and old picture frames was the order of our evening session (27.2.13). The group brought in an array of found, discarded and made wooden frames. A few hands made lighter work of hand stretching the used mesh. Staple gun, gaffer tape, brute force and patience helped create over 8 frames in preparation for 6th March print session.

recycled mesh (used or torn)

many hands make light work!

Nadine & Philly staple

Hector and screens

Drawing in Arctic Water (Tracey Rowledge)

Artist & bookbinder Tracey Rowledge's project with Cape farewell

'Drawing in Arctic Water' shows us how the environment and materials fuse together.

Article written by Nancy Campbell (editor of Printmaking Today)

"It's a preoccupation - how and why we make marks, and what they mean to me and to other people. A mark always evokes an emotional response," Rowledge says. She rescues notes on scraps of paper discarded in London's gutters, and gold tools them onto leather, the gilt impression true to each scribble and smudge. Bookbinding enables her to use "a non-gestural process to create something that evokes movement and spontaneity - and yet it's completely embedded in the tradition and processes of gold tooling. I love that extreme play."

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/nancy-campbell/post_4220_b_2299181.html 
http://www.traceyrowledge.co.uk/contents.asp
http://www.capefarewell.com
 www.printmakingtoday.co.uk

Screen Printing (make your own)

The second of the workshops is in planning. The session will run on Wednesday 5 March 2013 at a location within the Heygate Estate, SE1. Our aims for the session are to use screen printing, paper stencils, direct marking/painting onto screens and print within the environment. We will aim to utilises materials that are reflective and respond to the location. We aim to use non toxic methods and water based, temporary medium. We also intend to create our own screens from waste materials.

This site shows you how to make a screen with an old picture frame.
http://www.printcutsew.com/81/quick-and-easy-build-your-own-silkscreen-frame/print/
http://www.instructables.com/id/EFAN6S16FTEQ2W3MOV/

Screen Printing Studio Resources:
The Print Club
http://www.printclublondon.com/
East London Printmakers
http://www.eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk/

Reflections on relief printing

Student feedback:

"You can make things with anything; even the most mundane objects have a use. Dead leaves and a few strands of grass became some of the most important tools."

(Lizzie)

"I was overwhelmed by the sensation of being in a completely different place."

(Maria) 

"Difficulties: Was definitely the weather; the cold and the wind! It was hard to make a "clean" or "neat" print, because the paper was flying around...It definitely made you think, you can't behave like you do in the studio, so you maybe discover new ways and get in a way more creative. but it can also be a little frustrating."

(Nadine)

"You need a controlled environment to work in but I believe it is important to generate work on location to heighten senses and test your imagination.

The strong winds prevented the use of large sheets of paper, and drying the prints was very frustrating. So to combat this I changed paper size. Working outdoors can become very exhausting in a short amount of time."

(Will)

"Printing outside was good for this because you CAN'T really plan meticulously ahead, you just have to work with what is there and adapt to the surroundings, not try to adapt them to suit your needs. It's quite humbling."

(Philly)

Setting out from E&C to Hampstead, loaded up with equipment.

Trailing through the mud and trees.

Inside the tree, great for relief printing and rubbings

Inside the tree.

It's all part of the process

Soaking in a mud pool

Paprika & Mud prints

 drying prints

What can the wind do?

Clay soil mix

Blotting paper and mud relief prints (leaves)

Plasterzine casts from memorial benches

Dipped in mud

Gatter/mud gauge/making the path

Home to bath!

Group marking

The wind is a mighty force

"The main difficulties was with the weather; 

the cold and the wind. It was hard to make a 

'clean & neat' print."

(Nadine)