SCREEN PRINTING
August 10 - 14, 2015
Screen Printing
August 10 - 14, 2015
In this series of 2-day workshops, 15 kids, ages 5-12, learned drawing and printmaking skills. This course, taught by Bryant Merma and Eric Coleman, introduced students to the complete process of screen printing – from design development, to emulsion application, screen registration and printing on fabric. Every student took home t-shirts, tote bags, posters and flags printed with their own hand-drawn designs.
Session 1
August 10, 2015
Today was the first screen printing workshop, led by Bryant Merma and Eric Coleman. They opened the class with a drawing game to loosen up the mind and hand. Eric then described the printmaking materials involved in the project and their purposes. Bryant gave a demonstration on how to pour ink and pull prints. The kids were then set free to draw their own design onto a transparency sheet with an acrylic paint marker. One of the students, Noah, came prepared with his lemonade company logo – Noah’s Fizzy. Bryant and Eric used Noah’s design to do a darkroom demo about transferring the drawings onto screens using light-sensitive photo emulsion. By the end of the class every student had their drawing on their screens and some were able to begin printing.
Session 2
August 11, 2015
Today was all about pulling prints – lots of prints. Everyone finished preparing their screens yesterday and were eager to pour ink. Zennor and Finn did some nice and clean rainbow rolls (when you use multiple colors on a print). Morgan made a series of stickers of a character he invented and Noah stayed after class to print a large batch of “Noah’s Fizzy” t-shirts. He printed so much his hands turned yellow.
Session 3
August 13, 2015
The second group started today, Bryant and Eric welcomed them with a drawing game and printing demo. Afterwards, each student took to their stations to begin drawing their t-shirt design. After an hour of drawing the entire group got a tour of the darkroom and a demonstration on exposing their drawings onto screens with photo emulsion and light. A few students were able to start printing their tote bags while the rest prepared the screens for a full day of printing tomorrow.
Session 4
August 14, 2015
The last day of Bryant and Eric’s screen printing workshop. Gwyneth printed a psychedelic yellow and green dream catcher, Hale and Ripley made medieval flags, Noa made a multi-layer print of a snowman, and Ira went deep into outer space. The workshop was full of energy and expression. Everyone left happy with t-shirts, tote bags, flags and posters of all their wild creations. They said they could, so they did!
