History of Printing on Fabric.

 

I’ve always loved modern history. At school we had a wonderful history teacher. who taught us to embrace controversy - probably the most useful life skill in all my schooling.

I also loved my term of modern art history. And when I studied architecture, Le Corbusier became my idol.

 

Bottisham Hanging, 

Cary and Ricki Outis with young people 

from Bottisham Village College.

 

For the past many years (not saying how many) I have been a screen printer, so I was delighted to find that there was a talk on 20th century textiles, put on by Marketplace Arts in Chatteris today. Just up my street - both the topic and the location, being just the literal street from one of my great friends' house!

The talk was by Mary Schoeser, a respected fashion and textiles curator. The topic was ‘English Artist-Designed Textiles, c.1905-1945’.  In this period, many fine artists turned their hands to textile design. The dynamic marks they made created a new textile idiom that was informal, lively and experimental. And connects to all the other histories of 20th century modernism.

Interestingly, this is an aesthetic that has had a resurgence in popularity today.  Perhaps, as Mary says, as we face an increasingly dangerous future world, the hand made mark can provide the human touch and with it a sense of deep comfort.  

 

Screen printed cloth - Ricki Outis

Which, of course, brings me to screen printing: 

Screen printing is a skill developed in the 20th century. To me, it is very much about the dynamic hand of a human being, leaving direct evidence of our complex existence on the cloth. In an age of digital and industrial printing methods, we can still be artists creating new textiles, describing our own lives and reflecting the times we live in....with all it's contradictictions and flaws.

 

Ricki Outis - screen printed cloth using paper masks and screen filler.

And so, if you’re like to participate in making your own flawed and dynamic patterns on fabric, we have Screenprint Sunday, once a month at Prickwillow ArtSpace.  And in the last week of July, we will be doing our own summer school - 4 whole days of screen printing.

Contact us at prickwillowartspace@gmail.com to find out more.
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Screen Print: Studio Sunday

 

Screenprint Sunday! 

 

2nd Feb 25. (10am - 4.00pm).

 

Our first adult Screen Print on Textiles workshop this year. You are very welcome to join us for this studio day at Prickwillow ArtSpace. Suitable for all abilities including beginners or those who last printed many years ago at school!

 

Bring your own fabrics and develop your own designs. (See student printing in pic below). Fee is £45 for the day including inks, use of screens etc. For more details and to book, email prickwillowartspace@gmail.com

 

For people who are little (ie 9yrs +): you are welcome to come and print with a parent, grandparent, aunty.......etc!

 

 

 

Cottenham Summer School 2020

Just  a quick post to say that Summer School Program is online, Hooray! 

Lots of great art and textile classes (and of course the lunches):

http://community.cvcweb.net/summer-school


As always Sensational Screen Printing is very popular so if you'd like to do it, contact the college and strike while the iron is hot! (to use a textile metaphor).

 

We have a friendly studio atmosphere in this class so everyone can work at their own level and achieve their own patterns and print on cloth. Help and instruction are given whenever needed so it doesn't matter how much or how little experience you have.

Excited - I can't wait to see what creative fabrics people will come up with this year!

 

Cottenham Summer School 2018

 

Great news: Cottenham Summer School brochures are out.  This year there are some fab new courses as well as some old favourites.  There's journal making, calligraphy, quilting, sewing of all persuasions and some great cooking courses.

 

As you know, Screen Printing on Fabric (Spectacular Screen Printing) usually books up really quickly.  There are still  places, but don't leave it too long.....  contact

 

 There are 3 unique things about Screen Printing at Summer School which which make it really special:

a) We have LOTS of space - We have the use of 2 laboratory classrooms.  So, there are only 6 people in each room and each student gets their own 'studio' space.

b) A whole week!  Yes, a whole week - you can get a lot done in a whole week.

c) It's a really supportive, friendly community of learners.  We have lots of laughter and fun.

You can leave your work out overnight and dive straight back into it the next day - no packing up or having to finish at home.
And this means that you can really focus on developing your work from design through to print.   

So - what can you expect?   Our main focus is on handmade screen stencils in this course - using papers, screen fillers (some unusual fillers)  and found objects.  From there you can take your work in different directions:
-you can develop pictorial or graphic patterns and prints from drawings or reference material 
-you can explore more experimental texture and layering techniques using the screen for mono or multiple printing.

As a tutor, my goal is to help you develop your own style so that each person will come out with something different and personal, whether you are a beginner or have some experience with printing.

You can make fabrics to sew, to hang on the wall, tablecloths, bed linen.  You can print T-shirts, cushion covers, aprons....the world is your oyster.  for more details see the course brochure: Spectacular Screen Printing

And after all that, if you are still uncertain, scroll back through this blog to see some of the truly amazing work done by Summer School students in the past.

Student Work - Screen Print Summer School

Cottenham Summer School - Spectacular Screen Printing. Why has it taken me so long to post this wonderful work by students on the course? 

Everyone makes SO much work during the week that any pictures I put up can never capture the sheer exuberance of printed fabric that's produced.

As always, what I love about teaching screen printing is that each person in the class brings their own personality to their prints. Some people like to do multi- layer, multi-colour prints, some like to be graphic, some textural.  Whatever style people work in it's always  done with a spirit of exploration and discovery.

Jean's screen

And the print

Betty's print

Nicola'a amazing multicolour print

David adding finishing touches to his cloth

One of sarah's many miles of fabric!!

It's quite difficult to get onto this course but I am teaching two Saturday day schools (not linked) before deep winter.  One is at Cottenham Village College on Saturday 14 October '17 (see post below) and the other at Impington Village College on 25 November '17.  

Screen Printed Textiles Class at Cottenham Summer School 2016

T-shirt using discharge and overprinting

Sarah R - abundant flowers

I love teaching screen printing at Cottenham Summer School.  Actually to say 'teach' might be a bit of an exaggeration because the students really drive the direction of course. So, in many ways I think of it as a studio week.  Those who need to learn the basics can do so and those who know what they want to do, just get on with it.  Many students come back year after year, and each time, they just get better at design and print.

For some people it's an opportunity to experiment and see what happens serendipitously with the print process.  Other people like the accuracy and precise layering and they work hard to achieve that.

Over the week, everyone is encouraged to work in their own style and students are shown techniques that will enable that to happen.

Marian's Circles, using thermofax

Simple but elegant design using paper stencils

Wish the photo was of the whole 3 metres! - David's cloth

Annabel- experimental markmaking

Sue printing through Japanese papers

Sian - folk art tea towels

Betty - using filler to create brushy strokes

And here is Jane wearing an outfit she made from David's fabric

And on the subject of clothing, Jean G made this top from fabric she colour blocked at last year's Summer School

And this year she tried a more expressive version of colour blocking.

Some action shots - Jean J printing beautiful flowers in  tonal colours

And Sarah R going wild with pattern.

And Nicola's bird prints have been selected for a wildlife art show in London- Hooray.  After all that complex registration!

 

Cottenham summer school 2015

I think it's been 17 years since I first started teaching Screen printing at Cottenham Summer School and each year my students amaze me both with their creativity and their productivity!

So, here is some of the wonderful work by adult learners on the Sensational Screen Print course this year, 2015, at Cottenham Summer School.

Frustratingly I realise that I took far fewer photos this year so there's lots of textiles that I  don't have pictures of...........but here is some of what I do have: