Printing Day!!

So today was printing day!! I haven't had time to have a full day down at the PrintHaus in ages so made time to spend as much time as possible there today!

I started the morning cleaning up a few old messy screens and then exposed a zebra repeat onto a fresh one!

I've printed this design before but the cushions that I made form the fabric sold straight away so it only made sense to make some more! I used a waterbased ink first in a dark bluey green and then I messed about with mixing colours together - I went for a classic pink and purple combo. I think i need to make more of a gradient of the colour next time though.

I'd also put my favourite lion design on a screen before Christmas and still hadn't got around to using it so went to town printing loads of pieces in different colours.

  

I also took the opportunity to print on a pile of pashmina's that I'd picked up from eBay last week.

  

  

Ah I am now exhausted after a long day but feeling good. I can't wait for my next printing session, I'm definitely going to make sure its soon! 

Snapped Up Dinosaur Christmas!!

Today has been the return of Snapped Up at the PrintHaus. Such a good day, it started off quite slow this morning but I guess people were just having a long lie in; don't blame them though I could really do with a relaxing morning in bed, I don't think it's gonna happen for a few weeks yet!!

I spent the day printing stockings with people and giving some tips. I love being able to skill share and these events are always a great way to introduce people to screen printing.

The design was just a big oblong on the screen, so I cut a paper stencil in the stocking shape which i taped to the back of the screen with parcel tape.

I also created a tshirt design which I donated to the PrintHaus to use. They always ask local designers to create a few designs for the day and this time had some great stuff from the likes of Phil Morgan, Ian Watson and Tom Kitchen some of the cream of the crop in Cardiff design in my opinion.

It's always a treat to see your design on a tshirt!!

I also had a stall selling a few bits and pieces selected from the shop.

I'm going to have a few more of the stockings for sale in the shop from Tuesday, so pop in and pick one up!!

 

Crochet Jewellery!

This week I've been working on some jewellery! As it's heading up to Christmas time I'm trying to work on the gifty things I can sell in the shop.  I created these crochet flowers with a tini tiny hook; I think it was a 2.5mm diameter. A tad on the fiddley side to make with my big fingers.

I also started on a few sea animal toy earrings! They're a fun way to recycle old toys.

The next 'Snapped Up' Market is next Sunday and I've started working on my drawings today ready to print!

If you're in Cardiff next weekend, it's always a great day with tonnes going on!

 

Printing Signs and Patches

Today I have spent the whole day at the PrintHaus making fun things for the new shop!

I wanted to print a sign to go on the wall in the shop and I've been wanting to make sew on patches with some fun drawings on for ages; I was fed up with only being able to get band patches!

This is me making my film work ready to go onto my screen. I would normally print my images from the computer onto acetate so I don't have to keep drawing things over again but as the sign is so big I thought it would be easier to scale it up myself.

I can't get enough of purple at the moment so decided to print the text in a lovely rich shade that I mixed up myself. I thought it would compliment the colours of the patterned fabric that I wanted to use. I'm planning on stitching it up and finishing it in the morning so will post more pics when it's finished!

In between all this sign making I also printed a tonne of patches! As I was using waterbased inks I thought I'd take advantage of only being able to do about 4 prints before the ink started drying in the screen and change colours!

So tonight is filled with cutting them all out with the pinkin shears! Oh I lead an exciting life haha!

 

The Musical Snapped Up Market!

Time again for another Snapped Up Market @ the PrintHaus!!! Can't wait this weekend is gonna be busy! I'm running another have a go printing stall, making musical cushions! Pics to follow eh :) My friend Dan sings and plays guitar in the Samoans and Julia Harris is lush so come show support!

State Funeral Patch

So my boyfriend and my brother play in a band together. They're called State Funeral and have recently recorded their first e.p. - you can listen to a few tracks here. To go along with the record, I was asked to screen print a load of patches - well 500 patches to be precise!

My boyfriend did come and lend a hand, cutting everything out and putting things through the dryer for me. It was one of those days tho to be honest - I ended up making the stencil on the screen up 3 times! So finally got printing hours behind schedule (I always plan how long things are going to take in my head first - I guess its a freelance thing, trying to price up time!) It was a fun day anyway as lots of familiar faces were down the PrintHaus doing various things too.

I ended up having to go over the font with a Posca pen to thicken up the lines a bit; one of the reasons for multiple screen making. Posca pens are really handy for screen printing, they're felt nibbed pens that are filled with acrylic paint which is opaque, you definitely need these for exposing with photo emulsion. The photo below is me washing the screen out after I'd exposed it.

I set up the screen on the printing carousel rather than the fabric length table. I had planned ahead and managed to pick up some really lovely black canvas for cheap from eBay. We cut the fabric up into 35x45cm pieces and printed 12 patches at a time. Seemed to go quite quick once we finally got started!

Although we lost a bit of the finer details, I think they look like decent punk rock patches! All we have left to do now is cut them up individually but I might phone my bro for help with that......

I finally kinda have a day off... but not really!

This has been a busy action packed week and now I'm exhausted. Started off on Monday with a stall at the Buffalo Mini Mart in Cardiff that was fun.

This was me sorting out my rail of things to sell beforehand!

I also made a few new tote bags to sell at the fair. Here's a couple of my favourites.

I'd printed a pile of bags when I was printing on the skirts etc on Sunday and then finished them off with the lace on Monday. Here are a few pics I took when at the PrintHaus.

The rest of the week has been a couple of days sorting tshirts at Visible Arts and then preparing for the One Planet Living Festival. I finished the flags (I'm waiting on photos to put up) and made some more bunting for Becca.

15 metres later... haha! ooh and fixing new zips in vintage dresses for a shop in town.

So then yesterday was the big day and it was awesome! Loads of people milling around which is great. I was running a little workshop making wallets or purses out of woven paper. I'd picked up a pile of old annuals from a carboot and we used those and a mixture of magazines to make them from. Spot the Beano in there!!

I used gaffer tape to edge them and keep them together, this one's white but I did indulge and bought a host of colours for everyone to use!

Jude and Nigel from the PrintHaus had the stall next to me so I had a great view of my designs getting printed. The kids were loving my cat on a bike design!

Dan's niece looks like a happy customer :) thanks for the picture!

My other design too!

Go Gavin!!

So today I am taking it easy(ish) after the mamouth washing up pile, I admit the house worked slipped this week haha and I ended up with a Daisy from Spaced in the kitchen moment of horror!

I've started putting some fabric in hoops that I'm going to embroider into, sneak peak -

The top one is just a pretty Ikea fabric I like but the bottom one is one of my screen prints.....oooooooh! So now I'm sat back in bed watching Grey's Anatomy and doing a bit of stitching with the cat curled up next to me. Thom (my yummy Mr) is off recording music with the band he's in with my brother; can't wait to here it later! Hope you're enjoying your Sunday Afternoon too x