the ‘one-time’ craft that wasn’t..
Crafting, creating,
making a mess..
All things that I love to do. To be able to satisfy my craving for all things crafty I developed a bit of a habit of choosing a craft and learning everything I could about it so I could make something to be gifted to one of my poor unsuspecting friends or family members, and then never laying an eye on said craft materials ever again.
Screenprinting was supposed to be one of these activities, something to take up for one-time only and then forgotten just like all the others; think needle felting, paper quilling, clay jewellery, origami Christmas decorations, the list goes on.
But printing had other ideas..
Let me set the scene;
So, it was mid-2019 and I was contemplating my next project. I wanted to recreate the handwriting of my very dear, much loved and eternally missed best friend, Rhian, who had passed away the year before. She had given me a letter years ago when I was leaving the country to go travelling and it had a lovely sign off in her very distinctive handwriting. I thought it would be special to be able to create a version of this to gift to her kids, parents and closest friends. But how to do this while being true to the lettering, not ruining the original letter, and almost as importantly, it not looking… shit?..
I freelanced at a studio next door to Georgia Bosson, a designer specialising in textiles; Georgia prints her own fabric to make into gorgeous cushions, quilts and homewares. I’d done a couple of workshops with Georgia in the past - woodblock printing onto fabric and dying silk with flowers - and she pointed me in the direction of Sonsoles Print Studio where she exposes screens for her printing work. Sonsoles is an artist-run studio in Peckham Rye who offer courses in screenprinting where you learn the basics and go on to make your own small edition 2-colour print..PERFECT! So I turn up to the studio for my class with 5 other people ready to make my print. Now, you may remember that I had absolutely zero knowledge of screenprinting before this. Nothing. Nada. And surprisingly enough just turning up with an old letter and a packed lunch was not what I needed to actually achieve what I had in mind. What I really needed to do was some digital wizardry to make a positive from the section of writing I wanted to replicate. This realisation started a little internal panic. I’d had this project in mind to create something in the wake of a devastating, utterly awful situation and I’d fallen at the first hurdle. Luckily, my teacher for the day was Julia Vogl. Julia taught us to hand make stencils with pens and sheets of card, cutting and drawing and layering pieces up to see how they’d work. It was in doing this I think that started my crush on screenprinting. If I had done even an iota of research beforehand and arrived with my digitally produced positives, chances are I wouldn’t have gotten that same satisfaction that sparked that feeling I’d get when I make something from scratch with my own hands. We were shown how to coat and expose our screens and set up the printing tables. Working in that studio with a small group of recent strangers all making completely different things became a calming, almost therapeutic day. I ended up making a neon pink Billy Idol inspired screenprint that I hand-finished at home with spray paint and chrome industrial tape. I love this print, and is still one of my favourite things that I’ve made. I went home that day with ink under my nails and in my hair, with my handmade edition rolled up under my arm and new ideas fizzing away.
