Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Stormy Screening...


Serious storm time here in the bay area. But it gives opportunities for some impressive and unusual photos. This was about an hour before sunset on Sunday night. First sign of the sun all day.

The weather, the stars or some deep mysterious factor is bringing back some weird energy. Unexpected mood swings are popping up occasionally, but I've found a good way to deal with them this week: work.

Not that I'm stitching anything or even have an "in progress" photo to share yet. Still.

Last summer I bought a SpeedBall Silk Screen kit which has been taking up space in my studio since then. I would read the pamphlet that came it with, then decide to not "risk" ruining anything and put it away. Not anymore.

When I head to Art Quilt Claremont in April, I hope to pack about 8 t-shirts all with new graphic designs on them. But I don't have any of the designs done yet. Hmm... I've got 2 months to get 8 shirts done... better get a move on.

This alone motivated me to start working on learning how to make a silk screen using the "classic" resist method. You draw the design onto the screen material, paint the part you wish to screen with drawing fluid, cover the screen with screen filler. Where the drawing fluid is, they claim the screen filler will not stick. So when it's all dry, you can rinse away the drawing fluid and screen filler creating a printable screen.

Yeah. We'll see.

Anyway, I could have... should have... chosen a simple design to start with. Instead I took a photo of "my tree" on the hill behind my house. I resized it, turned it into a black/white litho special effect photo and printed it out. Lots of fine line and detail. This is the original photo:


Anyway, I've spent 2 days just tracing the image onto the screen. Today I will paint in the drawing fluid, hopefully not getting things too mixed up. If it took 2 days to trace, it might take as long to paint. If I seriously mismark (mistaking negative space for positive space) and need to start over I am screwed.

What I'm liking about this process: it's slow, so it's meditative. It's progressive so even when there isn't a lot happening, it's still easy to see progress.

Fingers crossed I'll have a finished something to show in a couple days. Then a tutorial.

Check out my other blog: Deb's Daily Distractions where, yeah, I'm late with my Tale of the Scale.
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