Cranes over Marsh Land

The lure of possibilities inherent in the screen printing processes has overpowered the siren calls from the sewing machine. I haven't 't tried my hand at this before now, but, as of today, I'm hooked. I do not have the lighting equipment for the emulsion method, but there are myriad other ways to utilize the screen for printing and now I want to try as many as possible.

"Cranes Over Marsh Land" utilizes 4 different printing methods.

Step One involved cutting a sheet of newspaper slightly smaller than the back side of the screen frame.

In Step Two a rough circle was torn out of the newspaper. This was taped to the back of the screen with masking tape.

Step Three involved placing the screen on fabric that had been pre-washed and pinned to a padded board.

In Step Four ink was placed across the top of the screen and drawn across the circle shape. This was repeated 4 times, twice at the bottom of the fabric piece and twice at the top. A quick washing of the screen followed.

In Step Five, wide masking tape was torn in strips and randomly placed on the back of the screen. As in Step Four, ink was placed across the top of the screen and drawn across the entire screen. Again, a quick wash of the screen made it ready for the final printing.

Step 6 involved drawing a flying crane shape onto the dull side of freezer paper and cut out with a craft knife. This piece of freezer paper was then ironed, shiny side down, onto the back side of the screen.

In Step 7 ink was placed just above the crane shape and then drawn across the screen. Yet again, the screen received a quick wash.

Step 8 involved placing painter's tape along the bottom edge of the top print and along the top edge of the bottom print and ink was drawn across the open space, thus creating an integration of the top printing and the bottom printing.

Because the dark gray "marsh grasses" slightly show through the red strip overprinting, another layer of red will need to be made, but once that is complete and ironing sets the color, quilting can begin.