"Granny Anne" cloth screen print

I have these lovely pictures of my grandmother  - one from when she was a child with her hair in ringlets - probably specially done for the photo and her socks falling down her calves; and the other of her on her wedding day.  A while ago I made photoscreens of these and every now and then I print something with them.  This time I had a  cloth that I had dyed and printed with a doily and some lace. It sat folded (well actually crumpled) in my workroom for a year until suddenly I remembered these two screens. And so...............

I felt it needed something else

So I made up this screen with some text in her handwriting.

The cream has been discharged and the brown is printed on with pigment and paste

  The cloth is actually a sort green - it looks blue on some of these photos

Cottenham summer School Screen Print

These are some of the truly fabulous fabrics printed by student on my course at Screen Print Summer School at Cottenham Village College this year.  I have a strong belief that teaching is all about encouraging each person to develop their own style and I think that these prints really do show that.  Everyone in the class, without exception,  did really wonderful work this year.  These are just some examples:

Anna

Debra - photographic screen from her own drawings

Adi - exploring design

Ann's swans - tricky registration!

Annie

A selection of Debra's prints in a pile

David's tree print -A clever alternating of 2 screens to get that long trunk

This is Jean's workstation - lots of room, lots of printing!

I think this was done by the "other Jean"

Other Jean and it's a vilene stencil print taking design into a more serendipitous realm

Photoprint of little drawings

And  a fishy print on paper and on fabric

Nicola

I can't remember who did this one but I like it!

Nicola, creating yardage- looking forward to seeing her wearing this!

Very delicate print from Jean

And Jean again

Sarah & Aika - swapping and sharing screens

Sarah's Africa series

And sarah's kitchen series

Sarah and Debra wearing their prints that made last year - fabulous!

I have no idea who made this but it's simple and charming

Aika made a series of variations on this theme, using different colours for each set

Ann - inspired by Newmarket, screen made by drawing with filler

Well done everyone who took part - your work is absolutely inspirational!   If you are interested in trying out screen printing on textiles I will be running 2 screen print days - both Saturdays at Cottenham VC   see their program at this link
 cvc Saturdays

Cottenham Summer School 2012

Several people each printed an image onto Ann's tea towel

and the same for Nicola

Every year I teach a week long course for adults at Cottenham Summer School Cott Summer School.

 It's a wonderful opportunity to really explore screen printing in depth and to make some complex layered pieces. The college generously gives us 2 big rooms to work in which means that the participants can print some really big pieces of cloth.  I am just processing the photos from August this year and as a taster here are the tea towels which everyone made as a fun excercise. During the week, each person in the workshop printed one or two of their images on a  teatowel for someone else in the group to take home with them as a gift.  More pictures to follow as I organise them.

Butterflies in the Bandstand

Around the bandstand

Cary did this lovely project with a group of girls from ADEC (adec info) and lots of families who dropped in to make butterflies and flowers for the park.  They were displayed in Jubilee gardens in Ely last weekend at the Bandstand marathon and very pretty the park looked too! 

Sunflower prints

Whole cloth

Detail

And a separate cloth, with border

I actually have 3 great, big sunflowers in my garden this year.  I try growing them every summer but usually something gets them before they flower - so in celebration I have done couple of lengths of sunflower prints.

Jubilation

Another project I worked on this summer -Jubilation!  This was a project organised by Gilly Vose of the Norris Museum in St Ives (Norris) and funded by the St Ives Town Council ( hooray for them, in a time when arts funding is being cut by councils all over) see their facebook page St Ives facebook

Gilly led the reminiscence sessions for this project.  Young people from St Ivo School and museum volunteers spoke to people who attend the day centres in St Ives about their memories of the coronation and other public celebrations from the period.  The focus was a festive tea table and the delicious, strawberry jelly which Gilly made!

Then - the screen print sessions. The young people worked with the older people to translate their memories and stories into images which we screen printed on the banners. They were hung in the corn exchange for the jubilee weekend celebrations and again for the heritage week.  So here they are in red white and blue - of course!