Sunday Silk Screen

My bones are weary - screen printing is a physical job. For the last two weekends I've attended an intensive screen printing workshop with Paula McLoughlin refreshing my skillz (which weren't much to start with and were developed over 30 years ago during art class (I am gasping and having an anxiety attack at the very thought of how long it's been since I was in Fifth Form))

I had a great plan that was working out very well for 8 of the 9 screen overlays - the last one, the most important one, the black one - the one that would pull the how shabang together failed a wee bit, but that's okay (mostly) I learned a lot about the intensity of black ink.

As much as screen printing is about techniques and preparation - it's actually about process and cleaning up. Thinking about how to layer colours to achieve an outcome, figuring how many and what type of screens to use, and how to fit in cleaning and drying screens, prints and equipment between every colour.

So my project pretty much went like this:

  1. expose photo-sensitive silk screen to ultra violet light to create stencil
  2. trace and cut out the 9 stencils (one for each colour) that will make up the background (took 90 minutes)
  3. tape t-shirts to tables
  4. attach stencil to screen, apply ink and print each of the 4 t-shirts in turn
  5. remove excess ink from frame
  6. clean and dry silk screen
  7. clean and dry squeegee, stirrers and stencils (yes, they're reusable)
  8. dry ink on t-shirt with hair dryer
  9. attach next stencil to bone-dry screen
  10. print layer number 2
  11. remove excess ink from frame
  12. clean and dry silk screen
  13. clean and dry squeegee, stirrers and stencils
  14. dry ink on t-shirt with hair dryer
  15. attach next stencil to bone-dry screen
  16. print layer number 3
  17. etc and so forth
  18. etc repeat from No.4 to No.15 until finished
  19. from 10am to 3pm

I kinda like systems so the process of screen printing suits me. I also am absolutely at home with the concept of layers, and separation of colours along with blending techniques - so all and all, I had a completely exhausting but very happy Sunday printing thejamjar.com t-shirts.

thejamjar.com t-shirts

 

30DMC - Favorite made for TV movie

I have trouble these days - what with old age and senility settling in - with figuring which movies are 'made for tv' and which aren't. So I'm reaching back into the distant past to a television movie that has stayed in my thoughts ever since I saw it.

Threads tells the story of people in Sheffield, England who experience the aftermath of a nuclear missile strike. The fact it has stayed in my head all these years must point in someway to how good (?) this made for television movie was. Or maybe I just catalogue such memories because I have a keen interest in mass destruction and its aftermath.

30DMC - Favorite love story in a movie

or just the lovey-dovey bits from other features...

  • George Wade is in love with Sandra Bullock ages before either of them realise in Two Weeks Notice. He comes to her at her new job after finally letting her leave his employ, only to have her reject him after he pours his affection all over her office floor. She waits a few minutes as the realisation sinks in that she, too, is in love with him before running out into the street after him pulling her thin cardigan about her and against the New York cold. She throws herself into his arms and then talks and talks and talks until he fastens her lips together with his fingers before kissing her.
  • Andrew Largeman cups Sam's face in his hand - they are both dressed in black bin-liners up-top the bulldozer in the pouring rain after screaming into the infinite abyss - he kisses her to the sounds of Paul Simon singing about the Only Living Boy in New York.
  • Wesley is a bit annoyed that Buttercup took up with the first Humperdink that asked her out after he had gone off to seek a fortune on her behalf. When Wesley is confronted with her excuse that she did it because he had been reported captured and therefore killed because the Dread Pirate Roberts never takes prisoners, he assures Buttercup that death cannot stop true love - to which she vows she will never doubt again.
  • After all they've been through mostly mistaking passion for each other as disdain and dislike, Leia realises her attraction as it flares up all over Han Solo in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon whilst parked inside the asteroid creature's stomach. Talk about love in the work place. They declare their love as Solo is lowered into the carboniting chamber - Leia cries out to Han "I love you" to which he replies "I know" - she buries her face into Chewbachas furs to soak up her tears of loss.
  • As the dust settles, Annie lifts her kiss to Jack's mouth only to have him hesitate and say he's worried that relationships built on intense situations hardly ever last, to which Annie suggests they base their relationship on sex instead. Jack thinks this is a good solution and they kiss to the sounds of camera-shutters from a van full of tourists peering through the busted windows of the subway carriage.

30 Day Movie Challenge (30DMC)