Thursday, February 21, 2008

Thrifty Screen Printing Experiment Ends in Failure

Thanks to CraftGrrl's awesome, step-by-step tutorial, I have been jonesing to try screenprinting for some time now. A snow day offered me some unexpected time to dedicate to crafting, so I enlarged the groovy logo painstakingly designed for me by the amazing artist, Jelene, then traced it onto filmy fabric. Pencil did not show up very well, so I re-traced with ink.
The teensy, delicate paintbrushes I purchased with this project in mind were nowhere to be found (until about ten minutes after I was finished), so I used a ten cent toy brush instead. It worked out, but was difficult to maneuver with any delicacy. In fact, glue-painting the negative areas took me about an hour and a half, including breaks to re-assemble toy train tracks for young Mister Booper.By this morning, I was ready to risk ruining a shirt. I sponged dye onto the shirt, and the design seemed to emerge beautifully.Unfortunately, the dye also seeped through the glue, leaving me with this mess on a comfy old favorite shirt. Lesson learned: use ink, not dye. Once I recover from the failure, I'll buy the proper supplies and try again.

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