Screen Printing Large Design With Colour

This initially started off as one of my final plant designs with white pigment on the linen.  After I had screen printed one of the rows and lifted the screen, we realised that a piece of the masking tape we had used to mark off where to put the screen had been left on the linen.  This left a strip of the original colour of the linen showing through one of the designs when it should of been white.  After trying to correct it using the white pigment and a smaller squigie, you could still see the strip showing through.  I made the decision of adding a row of a plant in one of the colours from my colour palette and thought I could use this piece as either a smaller croqui design or use it to cover a vintage stool or chair.

Screen Printing Another Final Design

Still using linen and white pigment, I also screen printed another design using two different cut out of plants.  This design along with the other on linen, are part of my plant collection and both are long drops of fabric showing each design that are to be used for interiors.

Smaller Screen Print Designs

Whilst I am doing so many larger scale final designs on drops of linen fabric, I am also producing smaller scale designs on to linen as well.  These are some examples and you can see where some of the white pigment isn't as strong in some places as others.  This helps towards creating the texture I wanted which you can see in my original drawings, cut outs and paintings with white paint on brown paper.

Screen Printing A Design In Print Studio

These are some images of me printing one of my final designs on to linen.  The screen was quite a large screen so I did have to have some help when I was putting it in the right place to print and also when I needed to lift the screen up after printing. Before I printed the plant designs, I measured and marked with masking tape so I knew where I had to print each time. 

Lined Animal Screen Printed Samples

Although my final collection on linen consists of the plant designs screen printed withe pigment, I also wanted to see how this collection could be developed.  This involved screen printing some of the line drawings of animals that I had produced in colours from my colour palette.  This could work quite well and even though the plants and animals are simple line drawings and cut outs, they are effective.

I would like to produce smaller croqui samples and designs on linen to show how the cut out plant designs and lined animal drawings can also be used for fabric and interior designs. 

After Effects Of Screen Printing

After doing my full length screen printed test piece of a final design on linen, I ironed it once dry and when I took the linen off the print table, it left an imprint of my design on the table.  This was where some of the pigment had gone through the fabric.  The white pigment on the linen gives a textured, natural look and I really liked the textured effect it has left of the white on the black.  By taking pictures of the pigment on the table, I wanted to record the texture in another colour way and wondered whether the images could be used. 

Testing With A Final Plant Design

These are some images of one of my final plant designs.  I first tried it on cotton with another colour in the length that I wanted to use to see how it would look.  The top image is an example of this and whilst it looks effective, the images are a little bit too close together so I knew I had to move them and have a bit more space in between each one.  The second and third images are one of the final designs using the white pigment on the linen as I wanted to see how the full design looked on the length of fabric I wanted to use.

Final Plant Designs

These are the designs that I am going to use to screen print with white pigment on to linen.  They will be screen printed on to long lengths and dropped vertically in my final degree show so you get to see the full effect of the design.  My designs are aimed at being used for interiors and rather that than make something out of all of the fabric designs, I wanted to people to see the full potential and think about what they could be used for.

Plant Design Ideas

These are some ideas for my plant designs to be screen printed on to linen with with pigment.  The two plant shapes are the ones I want to use on the linen and I was playing around with composition, colour and the positive and negative of the cut out plants.

Plant Sampling On Linen

After deciding that I wanted to screen print my plant collection on linen with white pigment, I chose to do some samples with one of the cut out plants that I was going to use.  I used the positive and negative of the cut out to make sure I was getting the look I wanted.  It worked well so I decided to stick with this method for my final designs for the plant designs to be put on linen.  Although I wanted to just use white pigment, I decided to try another colour to see if it worked which I was also pleased about as I think using some colour also works well and is something I can think about doing if I wanted to move on from using white pigment on its own.

Lana MacKinnon

Birds And Fish

Leaves

Birds Of A Feather

Mobiles

Lara MacKinnon was a designer that created designs for both fashion and interiors.  It was worth me looking at her work as a source of research as she used simple but effective techniques such as the simple lined drawings and collaged effect like those in Leaves and Birds Of A Feather.