Deconstructed Screen Printing: Drawn Designs

Now, THIS is exciting stuff!  After doing deconstructed screen printing with randomly created screens, I decided to draw on my last screen, with a syringe.  This is a technique I learned in a DSP class with Kerr Grabowski.

Deconstructed Screen Printing: drawn design. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

That’s my screen above.  I drew on it with very thick black dye.  In fact, it was actually too thick and it came out in glops and curly-Qs.  None of which mattered for my purposes.

And here’s the first pull with that screen. You can barely see the clear dye paste I used on the far right.

Deconstructed Screen Printing: drawn design. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Is that cool or what?  Some of the dried dye in the screen has dissolved with the print paste and has given a little gray color. But, the heavy black lines are thick enough to act as resists and they’ve created white lines.  Not what you’d expect, right?

The first few pulls with colorless paste looked somewhat similar.  Here’s a more detailed shot.

Deconstructed Screen Printing: drawn design. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Before I show you the rest of my results, here’s more of an overview, using Gabriele DiTota’s work as examples.  She was our ring leader for the day and she got some great results.  Here are her first few pulls with her syringe-drawn screen.  (She was smart enough to thin the black dye paste so she avoided the gloppy curly-Qs.)

Deconstructed Screen Printing: drawn design. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

After a few of these colorless pulls, she switched to red dye.

Deconstructed Screen Printing: drawn design. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

The red dye colored the background, but the drawn squeegee lines still created a resist resulting in white lines.  Pretty cool, right?

Deconstructed Screen Printing: drawn design. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Like Gabriele, I decided to add a background color to my efforts.  I was aiming for blue-green, but I initially got mostly green.  As I slowly added more blue, I pulled screen after screen, resulting in a run of blues and greens.

Below you can see the detail of the first couple of pulls on the left and later colored ones on the right.  As you can see, the drawn design is beginning to break down on the right and the details are fading.  No worries.  It’s just a different design.

Deconstructed Screen Printing: drawn design. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I got carried away and added a bit too much black to the one on the far right.  The fabric is wet in this photo, so it looks especially vibrant.

Deconstructed Screen Printing: drawn design. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

And here’s the full run, washed and dried.  As you can see, it lost a lot of color in the wash, but I still love it!

Deconstructed Screen Printing: drawn design. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

A super close up.

Deconstructed Screen Printing: drawn design. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I LOVE these results!  If I ever do DSP again, I think I’ll do this sort of drawing on all my screens!

Now, what will I do with all this luscious fabric?  That shouldn’t be a problem!

Ellen Lindner

 

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6 Responses to Deconstructed Screen Printing: Drawn Designs

  1. JANE ASHBROOK November 24, 2017 at 5:50 am #

    The initial screen design looked like 3 Ninja Turtles faces in a row! I love it.

    • Ellen Lindner November 24, 2017 at 9:03 am #

      Hey, I didn’t notice that, but you’re right! Funny.

  2. Regina Dunn November 24, 2017 at 11:38 am #

    I love the idea of drawing with black dye. It gives a fabulous result. I’ll have to try this. Thanks for the post.

  3. Ellen Lindner November 26, 2017 at 12:12 am #

    Hi Regina,

    It’s VERY cool! You’ll love it!

  4. Kimberly September 14, 2020 at 10:41 pm #

    Love !

    • Ellen Lindner September 20, 2020 at 10:47 pm #

      Thanks, Kimberly. I haven’t done this technique in a while, but your comment has promoted me to add it to my list!

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