Deconstructed Screen Printing

Today was a fun art day with Mary Ann as we experimented with deconstructed screen printing. We each made our own thickened dye designs on our screens. The screen above was the only one I made and haven't had time to use yet. The design is made with a plastic fern (top left), plastic leaf (tr), rubbing plate (bl) and plastic palm leaf (br).

The first screen I used was a tiny screen made from mat board, screen and duct tape...

The screen area was about 4" x 6" and was a good size to start with. Here are the prints I made with it--the order goes from top left to bottom right. With each print there was less dye and less detail, but more interest.

The next screen was quite a bit larger and the print was more detailed with plastic palm leaves and paper doily. I got 13 (!) prints out of this screen already and there is still more dye on the screen! Here are the prints in order...

Prints 1 & 2, dark color, lots of detail, and it's obvious what the imprints were

3 & 4, lighter color, a little less detail

5 & 6, I used some of the "dirty" print paste (with dye in it) to keep the color darker

7, 8 & 9, clean print paste, layered prints, less background detail

10 & 11, more dirty print paste to make them darker, less detail

12 & 13, not a lot of detail, but some really cool prints

Here's the screen that made these prints...

...and there's plenty more dye on it for more printing.

Here are two more fabric pieces that were printed with design objects before they went to the sink for cleaning.