Prepping for my breakdown screen-printing workshop at Ah Haa in August

Various paraphernalia used for breakdown screen printing process

I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain.  I’ve seen family too.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks of fire, rain, and family.  The comings and goings of my Spanish family who thankfully visit from Madrid each summer and some rare vacation time for me mixed in, have been a welcome change of pace.

As well, “our” Highpark fire has been 100% contained, evacuees allowed to return home, and all those prayers for rain have now been answered.  In fact, over the past couple of days, the monsoon rains have come and we now have mudslides and flash flooding in the burn areas.  When it rains, it pours!

Studio Tour a Success!

It was a great event and I had fun meeting lots of new people and reconnecting with friends.  We had a steady flow of visitors on both days of the studio tour this year and the majority were first-time visitors to our studios.

We didn’t know what to expect as far as turnout since this is just our 2nd year on the tour, but this year was really different from last – lots more visitors.  My new hand-printed scarves were a bit hit – so much so, and by request, I’ll be making up another batch to have on hand for our holiday studio party in Dec.

"texture" options for pre-printing (L), and dye pots and printing area (R)

Looking ahead – Telluride workshop in August at the Ah Haa School for the Arts

My past week’s focus has been on mixing dye and print paste, assembling my “texture” supplies, pre-soaking fabric in soda ash, and creating some pre-printed screens, all to get back into the groove of breakdown screen printing in prep for the workshop I’ll be teaching at Ah Haa in August.

I love this process because I find it to be a great blend of printing and painting and it’s really versatile.  After preparing the screens, I spent a day printing them out on the soda-soaked fabric.  Here’s a step-by-step slide show of one of the screens being printed:

The “final” image is really still a starting point.  It’s a good foundation and to take it further in resolving it as a finished piece, there are multiple options – print more layers on top of it, hand paint more dye on it, applique and stitch on it, cut it up and use parts of it in other pieces, and any combination of the above!

"final" breakdown printed image from the single silkscreen pre-printed with thickened dyes

I’ll be printing more of these as examples to show my workshop students, and post some more of them here as well.

After teaching this breakdown printing workshop in Telluride in August, I’ll be working on plans to start offering some textile workshops locally, even possibly at my own studio later this year.  More on that as those plans develop.

Have you seen this technique before or used breakdown printing processes in your work?  What appeals (or doesn’t) appeal to you about this process?