2 days at Harvest Textiles

I wanted cold weather...and it's arrived. Today has been chilly and rainy and I have been cosy indoors, crocheting my ripple afghan. Yes, I'm still working on it, inch by inch...

It's been a warm and slow weekend....which is very different to last weekend, because last weekend I attended a screen printing workshop.

This is my design - I sketched it during the workshop and came up with a folky bird pattern.

I’m always encouraging others to try something new (especially stenciling), and something I have wanted to try for a long time has been screen printing. One way or another, I never got around to it.

Well, that all changed last week.

I found a great looking workshop ...and to my surprise (and thanks to my active morning’s blogging) it was in my own city! ...and the next workshop was just days away.

Now, December is not the ideal time to start a new interest, especially not for me - but I couldn’t wait any longer so off I went…

What did I learn? I thought I had a pretty good idea of what screen printing involved, but soon discovered that I knew very little about it. It just goes to show that

you don’t know until you do 

You need strong arms! No, not really, but it does help if you have some upper body strength- it’s more physically involved than I expected and I was puffed out at the end of the 2 days.

Screen printing is an interesting technique that can accommodate a whole range of styles. I really enjoyed the workshop and I learnt a lot.

 

Actually I’ve been so keen to screen print for a while that a couple of years ago I purchased a ‘home size’ screen printing kit and one huge advantage is that I can now use it with complete confidence.

It is small, but both my DDs have expressed a desire to screen print tea towels (I don’t know about your kitchen, but we can never have too many) so that will be a fun long afternoon at some time in the future.

A definite advantage is that, like stenciling, you create your own design -so your end product is original. I love any technique that encourages you to produce your own style and put your own hand to use and screen printing definitely does.

I can see how effective screen printing would be in application for curtains, screens, etc.

As for quilts, well…..I still favor stenciling…but….I can see the possibilities in printing fabrics, panels and repetitions.

I’ve still got some ideas up my sleeve, so I am eagerly waiting for the day when Harvest Textiles opens it’s doors to previous students for studio space to screen print. I’ll be there!

 Have you tried stenciling?

or screen printing?

I had a great time and I recommend Harvest Textiles to anyone wanting to learn this technique. You can visit their website here:  Harvest textiles