Print and Collage

A new group of students joined the ranks of screen printers this weekend in the Print and Collage class with Sue.  (Elizabeth is in North Carolina to care for her uncle who had knee surgery).  We were a small group but able to explore and discuss techniques in a bit more depth than usual. 

Students were particularly interested in the various techniques Sue used to create these mini quilts and canvases.

Our morning was spent on instruction and practice printing.

After lunch, we talked about how the elements and principles of design are incorporated into collage/art quilt design.

Though "rules" are not hard and fast, being familiar with them helps to intuitively put them into play when designing.

Lawrence is creating the base of his collage with commercial fabrics that he adds printing to in the photo below.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the completed print.  He very cleverly completed the money plant print on the purple strip with discharge instead of black.  Discharge takes color out, so that part of the print is greyish-white.  He clearly likes to play with opposites.

Marianne worked on a piece using the tree bark screen as the background. 

Grace is perfecting her technique.

Sandy's birds, above, give her options with different fabric and paint color selections.

Her money plant print turned out great, ready for a future piece.

If this piques your interest, watch for our next session of Thermofax Screen Printing in the new year and join us to learn this fun surface design technique.

Class Collages

In our Print and Collage class, we provided some guidance on using the students' printed fabrics to create a collage.  While some chose to continue printing a stash of fabrics, others went on to play with their fabrics to come up with an arrangement that they could tweak at home, as well as add stitching and other embellishments.  Sue explained her process of starting with either a color story or theme/focal point and auditioning stash pieces to come up with a pleasing composition, while keeping the elements and principles of design in mind.

Here she's working with analogous colors (blue & green), with the dark blue providing the contrasting pop of color.

Mary auditions fabrics for her collage, and finds that sometimes just changing the position or width of a piece of fabric can make a big difference.

Jane likewise auditions fabrics to provide balance to her composition.

Barbara had a great piece of batik (the turquoise on the right) in several colors that was a perfect complement to the mum screen printed in white. Here she's playing with various elements for her collage.

Etta used her leaf screen in 3 sizes with an organza overlay to create her composition.  Isn't this a great leaf design?

Here's a look at our extensive collection of screens that the students had to work with.  We look forward to seeing pictures of their completed collages!

Print and Collage Class in March

Coming up on March 17 is our next session teaching Thermofax screen printing at Artistic Artifacts, called Print and Collage with Thermofax Screens.  This time, we're putting a new twist on the class by using the fabrics you print to create a small collage.  Typically, we teach you the basics of printing and then let you use the time to print as much fabric as you want.  But sometimes people aren't quite sure what to do with the fabric after they've printed it.  So we'll talk about some art and design principles and use your stash of prints to create a 12" square quilt, which could become a wall hanging, pillow, be mounted on canvas, or incorporated into a larger piece.  Lots of possibilities!

Below are some collage examples.  The first 2 are made with only thermofax printed fabrics (except 1 piece).  The third one combines thermofax printing with other printing techniques.  Check out the description and supply list and we hope to see you in Alexandria on March 17!