Sunday, July 18, 2010

Another hurdle down



My pal Vikki made my week. She happily handed over to me her hardly used power washer.
It is a little dirtier than the above photo, which I grabbed from the HP power washer website.
I will tell you how it works as soon as I get it up and running.

If you arn't familiar- a power washer is an invaluable tool to blast off stubborn photo emulsion.

Now I am off to design a filter to keeping Narragansett bay clean.

I am looking long and hard at the screenprinting guy's filter.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Summer Scrubbing...Had me a blast...

I've been slowly building out a new printshop. I thought I would share some internet resources that I have been drawing upon in case anyone out there is interested.

In general all you need for a sceenprinting shop is a surface to print on, and exposing unit, and a sink to clean your screens.

Originally I was going to build a washout booth based on Steve, The Screen Printing Guy's plans. But I couldn't find a shower stall in my budget.

So, I pumped Alec Thibodeau aka INK APE for information about his similarly sized setup. Mr. Thibodeau makes amazing work and cleans his screens in a humble utility sink. So, I started looking for a sink large enough to wash out my screens. After a week of internet searching I found one. Luckily the seller was able to deliver it in his truck. Thank you Chris. Thank you craigslist!



I spent this afternoon, washing and polishing my new sink, without the benefit of running water. I used a lot of Bar Keeper's Friend. And even more baking soda and vinegar. I used a bucket as a drain catch.

I have plans to make a print table that looks something like the work tables at the Crane Arts Building in Philly.



and create a portable fabric printing surface. Here is a tutorial from Michelle SaintOnge's Print Cut Sew Blog. She posts great screenprinting tutorials. FYI-I think she might be "sponsored" by some art suppliers.

Now I am onto getting the water running....

Monday, July 5, 2010

working through the heat



the workshop is moving along.

Dear Providence Letters/Images now online.

Declare War on Junk Mail from New Urban Arts on Vimeo.



In 2008, I was invited to correspond with a youth participant at New Urban Arts for their summer mail art initiative "Dear Providence."

NUA just put up an real shnazzy site that documents and expands that project.

Check it out!

DearProvidence.org is an online resource guide, an outgrowth of the “Creative Correspondence” 2008 Summer Art Inquiry at New Urban Arts. Each summer, New Urban Arts brings together artists, scholars and high school students over five weeks for a thematic exploration of the human experience as it intersects with creative practice. The 2008 Art Inquiry theme was mail art and correspondence.

Prep for Kitchen Table Printmaking

Here is some prep work I just finished for a relief printing version of KITCHEN TABLE PRINTMAKING at CRAFTLAND on August 28th.

I took a hint from Janet Doub Erickson and used polymer clay to create a printing surface.




Hand printed with cloth.


The pulled printed next to the inked matrix.