DIY Fabric Printing

This weekend I did a short course at the local Polytech in 'beginners fabric printing'. The focus was mostly on basic screen printing using paper stencils rather than photo emulsion screens.

If you haven't heard of screen printing before it's basically a way of making multiple prints by using a stencil process in which an image or design is superimposed on a very fine mesh screen. Printing ink is then squeegeed onto the printing surface through the area of the screen that is not covered by the stencil.

I've been thinking a lot lately about getting a screen printing set up at home and now it feels more achievable than ever. Mostly it's just a case of saving up for the equipment. I'm going to try and share some of the gems of information I picked up over the weekend, mostly though this post will act as a shopping list for the basic kit you need to get set up at home.

REQUIRED EQUIPMENT:
1. Screen printing screen

2. Screen printing squeegee – you'll want a couple of sizes. I found the small (shown below and medium most useful) also cooking spatulas and plastic spoons are really useful for mixing and spreading the ink.

3. Paper to cut we used news print which worked really well the better quality thicker paper I also tried didn't work any where near as well so I'd say the cheaper and thinner the better.

4. Craft knife or scalpel and cutting mat.

5. Padded surface. The Polytech had desks covered with a hard foam top (search or ask about underfelt foam) this was covered with a blanket then everything was covered with calico, pulled tort and pinned into place.

6. T- Pins for holding your fabric in place.

7. Masking tape

8. Solvent free print paste and ink dyes. You mix a couple of drops of dye to a cup of the paste to make your printing ink. You can of course mix the inks to make new colours, just like painting. The paste comes in transparent, which is what I used and opaque white which is good for printing lighter colours or onto dark fabrics.

9. Fabric or garments for printing on. Natural cottons work best.

10. An iron or heat press to heat set the ink.

11. newspaper and plastic sheeting to keep your house ink free. Apron, thin plastic gloves to keep yourself clean. Set up in a space near running water so you can clean your kit quickly and easily.

THE PROCESS:
1. Draw your design onto the newsprint paper. Make sure your design is smaller than your screen. Stencils work like/as silhouettes so you can't have any details within a shape that is being cut out.

2. Using a scalpel or craft knife cut out your design.

3. if you are printing onto a garment or item like a tote bag put a sheet of paper between the front and back to stop any ink sinking through. Then use the t-pins to attached your fabric or garment onto you desk. The t-pins should easily push into the foam top.

4. Use masking tape to attach your paper stencil to your screen (you can mask of areas of your stencil to use later with a different colour ink as shown below)

5. Mix your inks ready to print using a spatula.

6. Spread the ink onto your screen in a line behind the start of you stencil.

7. Holding the squeegee at a 45 degree angle. Pull it through the ink towards you (often you would be recommended to flood the screen with ink before printing but our teacher didn't recommend doing this with a paper stencil as the life of a paper stencil is limited to 5-10 good prints before degrading and becoming unusable). If your pulling your squeegee correctly it should make a zip noise when pulled.

8. Lift your screen carefully from one side like opening a book and that's you done unless, like me you want to print more colours. Really you should wait for the ink to dry before printing onto the fabric again but who can be bothered with that! Plus you have to clean the screen before the ink dries which means losing your paper stencil.

9. I used one half of the stencil to print the blue and one half to print the yellow, masking off with paper as shown above. Once this was done I felt like it needed a third colour so i cleaned the screan basically with an old rag and did one final print in a pink ink.

10. Clean your screen and equipment in water, the faster you do this the easier it is to get the ink off. Leave the ink to air dry on the fabric around 2 hours depending on how thick the ink is. Once it's dry heat set using an iron for around 4 minutes. Place a piece of paper between the iron and the fabric so your iron doesn't get ink on it.

OPTIONAL EXTRAS
We also got to try out the thermal copier that makes a simple photo image screens from photo copies. Not as high quality as a photo emulsion screen but good for trying out little illustrations or motifs,

Copier shown above and the floppy fabric screen it makes shown below.

I used a mix of paper stencils and a thermal printed screen to make these prints.

I love the over prints and double registration. I hardly ever play around with making pretty stuff just because. It was really good fun not to be worried about a target market or design concept for once and i'm keen to keep letting myself play with just creating for the sake of it for a while. If you're thinking of starting screen printing at home I'd highly recommend doing a short course first as getting the hang of pulling the squeegee is a bit tricky. If you can't find a course though, this etsy film is a good starting point.

FYI it's the final week of a 'Little Help Project' - it's a really long shot but if I won I'd use the prize to set up a print making studio. If you like 2Pac, unicorns or me please take a minute at follow this link and give my T-Shirt a vote/facebook like. It's also you're last chance to buy the t-shirt still a couple of sizes left. 

What the Hell to Buy Your Dad...

If you're anything like me, buying for your Dad is always the hardest. With Fathers day just round the corner I though I'd ask my Partner, Scott (a real life man) to pick some affordable gifts that would make even the grumpiest Dad smile. 

Shameless plug alert my 'More Awesome that 2Pac on a Unicorn' t-shirt has just been restocked in all sizes and is a pretty neat gift for telling Dad how cool he is. However if 2Pac's not your Dads' bag. Here's Scotts list. Most of these are NZ finds so you should still have time to sort for Sunday.

The Smith Journal by Frankie Press ($12.95 NZ in most bookstores like Whitcoulls, Paper Plus etc) … a quarterly mag for discerning men which surveys interesting, creative and genuine folk with stories. Your Dad can gloat that he knows 'what's up' cause he reads Smith. Volume 7 out now. 

Samurai Sword Chopstick Set by Think Geek ($7.79 US or a set of 3 for $19.99 US) … you know your Dad doesn't eat pies for lunch he eats sushi! So facilitate him to do so in style and annihilate his lunch with these samurai sword chopsticks.  

Rude Hand Gestures of the World Book ($21.95 NZ from the online store Wocolate) … description writes itself.

Bear Grylls Scout Folding Knife by Gerber ($52.50 NZ from Top Gear) … although your Dad can't be Bear Grylis, let him fantasize about being so with this Bear Grylis knife. He can open any can, slice an apple or just scratch his back. 

The Dude Abides Sweater ($48.00 US from the Lebowskifest Store) … all Dad's love the Big Lebowski and now you can confirm that he is also the DUDE. 

Regional Art Prints by Ink Big ($30 NZ  for a A2 art print from  Ink Big, other sizes available) … for your Dad's home office, get some beautiful illustrative prints that give sentiment to the wonderful family holidays of summer past. They can replace that scantily clad poster which has been up for ages but no one will acknowledge as art, let alone talk about. 

App Store Gift Card ($30 and $50) … a none physical option.  Dad loves to tells you the latest apps he got for his phone but as you know your Dad, there are more things than Angry Birds out there. These are some more practical options. 

Camera Noir ($2.59) … Your Dad is probably not into Instagram but likes to take photos. This allows him to take 'beautiful' black and white photos without having to go to his home developing studio. 

Wake Alarm ($2.59) … it's hard enough to get Dad up in the morning. This alarm is pretty though so surely he can't get too mad with it when it wakes him from his slumber. 

Multi-Measure HD ($2.59) … bring your phone into the workshop. This will allow Dad to keep things level, measure angles and with the decibel function allow him to tell you how much noise you are making. 

Convert Bot ($2.59) … this is unit conversion robot. When your Dad is managing his shares or just needing to know how many pints he will get out of his micro home brewery this will do the trick. 

A huge thanks to my lovely better half Scott Savage for taking time out of his day to write this.

How to Make a 16 Page Zine from One Sheet of Paper!

I taught this simple class on how to make a zine at 'Wellington Handmade' back in June (along with a few other tips and tricks). Once you get your head around pagination it's all really simple and a lot of fun.

Of course you can use this technique for making more than just zines! It's idea for making little info booklets particularly if you're on a budget. It's also a great way to put together family or holiday snapshots to send to loved ones or strangers if you like; who am I to judge. Today I'll refer to it as zine making though, as zines are often about producing multiples of a publication in a cheap and easy way.

1. You'll need a few bits and pieces. Most importantly access to a printer or photocopier. Scissors. Stapler (all the better if it's long armed). Paper, standard sizes such as A4 or A3 work best.

2. We'll start by making a master template. You can later use this to make your photocopies/prints from. Take a piece of A4 (this will fold down to make an A7 zine) or A3 (folds down to make an A6 zine) sheet of paper...

...fold it once longways...

...fold it again vertically across the centre...

...and fold once more vertically across the centre again.

3. Now comes the tricky bit. You need to number the pages 1-16 in Sequence. Start on the front page and work back. 

Some of the pages are folded/hidden but these need to be numbered as well. I recommend using a pencil so you can rub out the pages once you have finished designing.

4. Unfold the sheet of paper and you'll see that both sides have numbers on them. The numbers show where the pages will end up once the zine is folded again. Trust the numbers, even though it seems odd that they are often not sat near the pages you want them to be.

It's now time to get creative and start placing your designs/text/images onto the template. This is important - make sure what every your putting on the page is orientated to the same direction as the numbers you draw on earlier.

5. Now your pages are all laid out (on both sides) you are ready to photocopy (or scan in and print). You'll need to print 'duplex' (on both sides of the same piece of paper). Do a test run to see if you need to duplex on the short or long edge.

The free downloadable 'how to make a zine, zine' is flipped on the short edged (this means you turn it over on the short, rather than the long edge of the paper). Just play around to work this out or ask for help in the copy shop, they deal with this everyday so will easily be able to give you a hand.

6. Once you have a print out ready fold it up the same way we did at the start (step 2). My zine is pink because I chose a pink paper stock.

7. Now it's time to bind. This is where the stapler come in. Open the zine up to the centre pages and staple twice along the fold line. Binding done, it's that easy.

8. Now close the zine back up and cut along the top and non bound long edge using a strong pair of scissors. That's it you have a zine. Repeat for as many editions as you like.

Download your how to make a zine, zine here!

Seasons' Eatings 2014

It's very weird to be thinking about calendars in August but believe it of not, in giftware circles, i'm behind the game. Luckily for a small business like mine there's still enough time to get it all illustrated and printed before Christmas.

To build on the success of last years seasonal food calendar I have teamed up with a friend and fantastic cook Bronwyn Mason (you might also know her as R.W. Scissors) to create a seasonal calendar-cum-recipe collection. Unlike most calendars, this one carries on having a purpose once the year is done. Simply tear along the perforation to remove the dates, and you are left with an illustrated cookbook and guide to season produce. Even the torn-off dates have a second use as a shopping list for the ingredients used.

Bronwyn and I are both taking a bit of a leap of faith as we don't yet have the funds to produce the calendar. That's where New Zealand 'crowdfunding' site PledgeMe comes in. We're aiming to raise $1,500 to get a run of 100 of these calendars professionally printed to the highest quality on 100% recycled paper.

I am running this PledgeMe as a pre order and there are some great rewards up for grabs. Here's a wee gander of the rewards list:

$5 - One illustrated recipe emailed to you with a thank you message.

$10 - Three printable, illustrated recipes emailed to you with a personal thank you message.

$20 - A 297mm x 210mm Seasons’ Eatings signed artist print, recipe card and handwritten thank you note.

$25 - Screen printed fruit and veg tote... design to be finalised but based on the style of illustration used through out the calendar.

$30 - Seasons' Eatings calendar/cookbook, including free shipping within New Zealand 

$45 - calendar and tote bag combination

$50 - Two Seasons' Eatings calendars

$80 - Two Seasons' Eatings calendars and two tote bags

$120 - Seasons' Eatings calendar, but also an original illustration (in the same style as the calendar) of any recipe of your choosing: from a family favourite to a cookbook classic.

$290 - Seasons' Eatings calendar and tote, and you also get the hand-illustrated recipe of your choosing. On top of this, you will be sent (by courier, anywhere in New Zealand) a lovingly homemade, decorated Christmas cake, carefully packaged in a hand-illustrated box.

$450 - Seasons' Eatings calendar and tote. Plus your own world famous Dear Colleen ‘Dishes’ tea towel designed and printed just for you. Your choice of up to 5 people - from hollywood stars to sports men to yourself. You'll get 3 tea towels plus you can have more printed at request at a cost of $12 each.

My PledgeMe will be up for 19 day. Some further rewards may be announced if the funding goals reach their targets. Thank you so much for your continued support.

My Name is Earl(wolf)

If you follow me anywhere online you would have noticed my partner Scott and I have added a puppy to our family. I still feel a little shocked that we opted for a Chihuahua. Having grown up in a house with German Shepherds and Newfoundlands both huge breeds (here's a link to my parents dog rescue group, yep I come from a dog crazy family). I've literally gone from the biggest of dogs to the smallest. Lucky Scott and I met a tiny Chihuahua when we were up in Wellington and all our preconceived ideas were washed away.

Earlwolf (named after Earl Sweatshirt of odd future in a round about way) is a smart and loving little cookie. I never know Chihuahuas were among one of the oldest, and are one of the brightest dog breeds around. So despite the fact he's a 20th the size of our border collie he is proving to intellectually be his equal. They had a bit of a distant first week but now, three weeks down, they are firmly the best of friends.

This year has been pretty full of worry and heartbreak and it's been so lovely to have this happy ball of fluff in our lives. Scott and I are so lucky that we mostly work at home and are able to look after and be with the pups so much, it sure makes the day job more fun.

On a side note, we planned pretty carefully getting a second dog and have been weighing it up for a couple of years. Also I just found out that Mickey Rourke is a Chihuahua enthusiast... which makes me like Chihuahuas and him all the more.

Amanda Wachob

Image from www.amandawachob.com/blog

I don't usually wright much about other artist, mostly because I keep this blog as a journal for my own creative journey. But last night I stubbled across Amanda Wachobs' work and was really blow away. She's one of those modern creatives crossing the line between tattooing and painting. 

Plus Minus | Bloodline tattoo

Untitled | Tattooed and painted canvas

I don't have any tattoos myself and am not sure if I ever will. I do however spend time thinking about what I would get if I ever took the plunge. Botanical and painterly are the words that best sum up the image in my imagination. 

Image from www.amandawachob.com/blog

Image from www.amandawachob.com/blog

Image from www.amandawachob.com/blog

Her tattoos go far beyond what I had dreamed up. I'm hopelessly smitten with her fluid brush stroke tattoos. She's based in Brooklyn New York and if I ever save the money to go back I hope very much she might be able to fit me in.

A Date with Ryan Gosling (Sort of)

Oh goodness it's been a couple of months between posts. Mostly down to getting my gallbladder taken out... Turns out I was pretty sick and my gallbladder was fairly close to exploding or what ever it's medically called (rupturing I think). Anyway it ended up being a bigger op than planned and a longer recovery. I'm doing great now though.

Anyway on a positive note I got a lovely email from Tina Gephart a few weeks ago, Sorry Tina for being so slow in sharing this. Tina and friends have been taking the Ryan Gosling tea towel on a number of exciting adventures. These girls must be very good friends as they seem happy sharing him on their dates, I'm not sure I would be so kindhearted.

It was a lovely surprise to see these pictures, I often wonder where my products go and how they are received by their new owners. Tina, thank you for having such a laugh and for sharing the fun with me.

Here's Ryan at the Movies, watching the Great Gatsby. Wonder if he liked Leonardo Dicaprio in it, maybe he was jealous of his pink suit!

Ryan enjoying pan cakes for breakfast on a beautiful morning in Manly New South Wale, Australia.

On the road with Ryan! The beautiful Sam, helping to display him.

What a gent, Ryan picking up the tab for some crazy Melbourne girls visiting Manly.

Finally the beautiful Cayte was presented with the Ryan Tea Towel from Tina in Gundaghai, New South Wale.

 Huge THANK YOU to Tina for sharing!