Saturday, June 4, 2011

Low Relief Screen Printing (LRSP):
Published Technique Based Article
Embellish Magazine

Author: Marie-Therese Wisniowski

Introduction
An exciting new screen-printing technique for those who love color, texture and have a penchant for the serendipitous!

My new signature low relief screen-printing (LRSP) technique employing fabric paints has been published in the June 2011 issue of Embellish magazine No. 6 (Artwear Publications). If you would like to have a reference copy, which shows images and text of the technique, it will be available in newsagents in the first week in June until September 2011. It is also available via subscription. There are of course a lot of other great techniques in the issue as well.

Disclaimer: Marie-Therese Wisniowski, Art Quill Studio, and Art Quill & Co has no financial interest in Embellish or in any of the products mentioned in the article.

See the following link for more information: Embellish Magazine

Note: The information below is brief and so only gives a “taster” of the full article. For example, LRSP technique can be employed on most fabrics etc.


New “Low Relief Screen-Printing” (LRSP) Technique Employing Fabric Paints
Over the past few years and more recently, I have been experimenting with various improvisational screen-printing techniques using low relief texture items and so I have developed (and termed) a new signature method with respect to screen-printing low relief images using fabric paints.

Low relief texture screen-printed (LRSP) images are a non-permanent surface media producing only one print with each pass that results in a mono print series of prints. The images created have a lovely organic quality and lend themselves to interesting color combinations, which can add further interest to the textural quality of the printed works.

The technique is not too dissimilar to Kerr Grabowski’s Deconstructed Screen Printing (DSP), a printing/mono print technique that allows for a freer approach to screen-printing. She prints with thickened dyes over low relief textured surfaces; the dye is allowed to dry in the silk screen then printed onto fabric using release paste. The paste gradually dissolves the dried dye, which results in the image “deconstructing” as successive prints are being created until no more can be printed.

I have adapted this technique to enable the printing of low relief textured surfaces using fabric paint and acrylic print paste. Unlike DSP, where the thickened dye impressions dry in the screen, the fabric paint impressions cannot dry in the screen without damaging the silk screen. Fabric paints are acrylic based and dry fast. Therefore, the latter fabric paint property ensures that you can have immediate results when printing using this technique.

This is where any similarity ends between DSP and LRSP. Whilst in DSP the images breakdown and deconstruct until no image remains on the screen, in my LRSP the technique builds on previous screen colors, melding and then intermixing with the next color. The amount of prints created using LRSP technique can be endless (as long as your relief items are durable). You can print six or six hundred prints by continually changing colors with each successive print.

By incorporating interesting color combinations and items, these low relief mono prints are imbued with a painterly, multi colored, richly textured and organic aesthetic. LRSP is an exciting technique for artists who have a penchant for the serendipitous!


Images Highlighting The Sequence (And Successive Prints) Of The LRSP Technique On Cotton Using Foam Packaging Peanuts
Only three colors, green, blue and orange are used in the sequence of prints below.

Print A. Silk-screened using green fabric paint.

Print B. Silk-screened using blue fabric paint.
Note the melding of the blue with the initial green fabric colour.

Print C. Silk-screened using orange fabric paint.
Note the melding of the previous blue and green fabric colors with the orange.

Print D. Silk-screened using orange fabric paint.
Note the melding of the previous orange, blue and green fabric colors with this orange.

Print E: Silkscreened using blue fabric paint.
Note the melding of the previous two orange, blue and green fabric colors with the blue.


More Images Using Various Low Relief Items and Colors on Cotton
Note: These are just individual views (with detail views) and they are not a sequence of the one print.

LRSP employing fabric paints using found plastics and leaves.

Detail view of the above print employing fabric paints using found plastics and leaves.

LRSP employing fabric paints using ferns and grasses.

Detail view of the above print employing fabric paints using ferns and grasses

LRSP employing fabric paints using found plastics and leaves.

Detail view of the above print employing fabric paints using found plastics and leaves.

LRSP employing fabric paints using lace.

Detail view of the above print employing fabric paints using lace.

LRSP employing fabric paints using found plastics and leaves.

Detail view of the above print employing fabric paints using found plastics and leaves.

LRSP employing fabric paints using foam packaging peanuts.

Detail view of the above print employing fabric paints using foam-packaging peanuts.

Mono print taken from the foam packaging peanuts on the base print surface at the end of printing.

5 comments:

Linda’s Textiles said...

Thanks for this - I read your Embellish article with interest & intend to try it - great idea.

Laura Beehler said...

Very interesting results. I do like the melding of the colors and of course the spontaneity of the results. I can see so many possibilities using this method. Thanks for sharing!

Crystal said...

Great fabrics! Would like to suggest that you do a DVD of this technique and offer it for sale in the US & Canada as well as down under. Seeing someone actually do something is worth lots more than reading how to do it. Seeing someone do it more than once is wonderful.

queenopearls said...

I agree with Crystal. I love the effects you have created using your LRSP. I'll be looking to purchase this issue of the magazine and hope it is available soon in the US.

Art Quill Studio said...

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. I will be bringing out a DVD demonstrating the technique/s and will post it up on the blog site when it is available.
Marie-Therese