Textiles Workshop!

Recently, the textiles department opened two spots for students from illustration to join in. Happily, I am one of them! So, every Thursday afternoon, I get to go hang out in this space with all these screens.
     The irony is that when I worked at Buster Brown Apparel early in my career, I was all about textiles. I was part of a stable of artists. We created the patterns, the artwork, and drew the designs for children's clothing. We also created the samples which salesmen took around to stores for consideration. That meant screen printing the designs onto the garments. Many, many days I was covered in paint up to my elbows and I loved it. Funny how my life keeps turning circles on itself!
     I'm already thinking about my exit show next May and realized I actually have quite a bit of textiles in my design. I didn't know how I was going to accomplish that part until this workshop came along. So, I am truly excited!
     This past Thursday we had our first induction. Sally is our fair leader.
     She taught us how to strip and clean a screen to get it ready for our own use. We also got a walk through of the inks we'll be able to work with.
Today, Saturday, I went shopping for fabrics to experiment on. Sally warned that we won't be able to use anything we create on the first day since we'll be so new to the process. So I didn't want to spend much money. Happily, I discovered the scrap bins at several fabric stores and ended up with this collection.
     I've also got my Animal Alphabet project from last year in there. This is going going to be my color palette and inspiration. Several of the animal squares are going to become pillows and curtains for my final display.
     But for this first day, we'll only be using one color. So I created some simple images which I cut out of linocut to relief print on Monday as the artwork for my screens. I figure these can become coasters, change purses or round pillows if any are indeed usable. (I'll add a photo when I have them ready.)
     All said, this is going to be FUN, and I'm thrilled that we'll have this space available to us to use every Thursday afternoon through next May! Woohoo!

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