Curwen week 5

After a week without any printing (half term) it was good to be back at the Curwen for week 5 of this term. This Tuesday it was photo screen, so more screen printing using photos as a stencil. First one had to alter the image digitally on photoshop or a similiar programme, to end up with a black and white image to print onto an OHP transparency. I prepared several photos before I went and also drew a cup cake design onto Truegrain with black felt tip, Truegrain is a transparent acetate with a grainy feel to one side.

Preparing the screen took all morning. Basically you had to degrease both sides with a special soap (sudless!) and then dry with a hair dryer. Then you go into the darkroom to coat the screen with photo emulsion, which is a light sensitive solution designed to create detailed long lasting stencils. The screen then has to dry for an hour, after which  you tape your transparencies onto it. The screen then goes into the exposure unit to expose the image onto the screen and then the image is developed by washing off the emulsion. Once the screen is dry you can start masking off areas of your screen with parcel tape and START PRINTING!!!

I had 3 images on my screen and managed to print some of 2 images. The cup cakes will have to wait until next week. The first image was from this school photo of me and 2 of my sisters many years ago!!

I printed it in a pale grey, then a greeny sepia colour.

I then overprinted the sepia over the grey, which looks good.



I remember my mother saying laughingly that we looked like little ragamuffins!!

It brings back happy memories of childhood.

The next image was from a photograph of the multi storey car park at Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge. My daughter's baby Barney arrived 7 weeks early by emergency C section, nearly a year ago. She stayed in a hostel on site while he was in the special care unit for 3 weeks. Normally you wouldn't see this view of the car park but I saw it on the way from the hostel back to the car and thought it would make a good photo.

I think it will be a good print to play around with; so far I've just printed some pale grey, next week I'll do some over printing and print some backgrounds for all 3 images

Today 3 friends came to lunch which was fun, I like being retired! On Thursdays I teach some 1:1 at a local school, that went well and then I played tennis; so a busy, happy day.