Studio Sunday and Mini Canvas Screen Prints

Did you turn your clocks back last night?  It feels like I just got an extra jump on today with the change.  I love it now but I won't so much at 5:00 pm when it gets completely dark out.  Summer seems like it was just yesterday.  So in rememberance of summer, I screened and painted last night with Garden Party-2 and Tulip Trio.  Let's take a look....



Garden Party-2 I printed with white acrylic (heavy body) paint onto a dark moss colored cotton fabric.  From these pictures you can't tell as well but the combination of the white canvas and the bright pink colors against the dark moss looks stunning!


Here is the larger image from Tulip Trio painted in ecru acrylic (heavy body) paint onto tea-dyed muslin.  So the background canvas and the fabric are not contrasting as much but the subtle colors are very soothing.


The other smaller screens from Tulip Trio I printed in white on tea-dyed muslin and you can see more contrast against the muslin. 


The one thing I need to mention about these new screens is about the fine detailled lines.  Garden Party-2 and Tulip Trio have thinner lines separating the open spaces that the paint prints through.  Extra care needs to be taken when screening these to fabric and paper.  I will include an instruction sheet with these products.  The difference in line weight means preventing too much paint from going through.  The way to offset is by holding your squeegee straight up, perpendicular to the screen and make one pass only.  I you go across it more than once, you will lose the separator line.

When printing these last night, I found that if I do print too much paint, I can still see the lines and once the print was dry, I took a fine line Sharpie to lightly draw in the lines.  You could use a pencil or a disappearing pen or nothing at all.  Some people might not like the look of the separator line showing the fabric through from behind and this could benefit them by creating a more realistic painting.  It's all personal preference and I guarantee you won't be disappointed because these screens are so much fun to play with.  (By the way, I have no painting experience whatsoever and watercolors play nicely!)  After the watercolor or other paints dry, brush over the print with matte medium to seal it all.

I'm sure tonight I will have more to show you as I incorporate these prints into projects for more ideas!

For those who might be interested, there is a great Reader Challenge on quiltingdaily.com for a 10" x 10" mini art quilt on affirmations.  Follow the link below and if you can't get to the page you might have to register on the site.

http://www.quiltingdaily.com/content/Reader_Challenges.aspx

Comments

Sandy said…
It's nice to have your directions as to paint amount and angle of application. Those are great screens. I love nature type things.
Adrian said…
Margaret, these are just so beautiful! I love the watercolor look and to do in on fabric, WoW! I can't wait to get my new screens. Maybe by using watered down fluid acrylics on top of the fabric ink, I'll be able to do this on a wearable of some sort. I'll let you know what happens.
Thanks for talking about working with these screens. It really helps stimulate my thinking and dreaming.
Unknown said…
It's nice post here and so keep it up so keep it up for your nice work.