Friday, May 20, 2011

Printing using a paper stencil

Here is how I screen-print my paper cut-outs...



I start with the paper cut-out and make a mask out of brown kraft paper. See where I marked it with the pen?




Then I stick the mask onto the silk screen with stiky tape.



I place the paper cut-out onto the fabric where I want to print it...





... and position the screen with the mask over the paper cut-out.





I print through the mask and voila!




Off to the drying rack :)


More on these table runners next week. I'll be printing more colorus onto them.

paper cut-outs for screen printing

Here are some lovely paper cut-outs I've just done. I am planning on using these as stencils through the silk screen and printing some more hemp with them. This time I'll be using different colours instead of the trusty red :) I'll post about the results soon.






On the washing line...

Here are some more screen prints from last week. Still drying after a wash in the machine. I am not precious about the prints and like the way they come out all roughed up and looking well worn. I have not yet decided what I will make out of these. Possibly some more table linen as that is my excitement at the moment :) ... stand by.



Raw silk on the left and hemp canvass on the right









Screenprinting some table linen

I am very happy screen-printing some table linen at the moment. I made a table cloth for my friend's mum's 75th birthday out of a hemp/silk blend (which is stunning) and was very happy with how it turned out. It's the one with the large red floral print on it in the pics below. To make the pattern I cut stencils out of architectural drafting film and taped them to a blank silk screen then printed through that. It was a bit tricky as I had to wait for each separate segment to dry before I printed another one.

I also made some table runners from raw hemp and another table runner also from the hemp/silk blend with the same floral pattern on it as the table cloth. Except with this one I deliberately didn't heat set it for very long and it gave this lovely washed out look. I like it a lot.
































Monday, May 2, 2011

I made some bags!

I got this exciting idea to sew some bags out of lots of pieces of lovely screen printed hemp which i have had for a long time. I made some samples and I will be offering these for sale in my online shop from tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday 3rd May 2011 Australian time). They are all made from 100% heavy weight Hemp canvass. (the super textile). There is only one of each in the shop so once it's bought that's it but I will be making some more in the near future. I'm testing these to see how popular they are. I had a lot of fun sewing them that's for sure and I like that they're all different.