This is something I have been trying to pluck up the courage to try for some time, a little pot of photo-emulsion came with a screen-printing kit I bought at least a year ago but until last week I kept putting it back in the cupboard not quite sure what to do with it. The emulsion allows you to turn a black and white photo (printed on acetate) or drawing into a screen ready for printing.

After some internet research I made an “exposure unit” – a 400W light suspended from a frame of push-fit plastic pipes, all strung together with lengths of ribbon liberated from the cat’s toy box (sorry Pickle). All very Blue Peter* 🙂

Several tests later, I discovered that with my light set up, the emulsion only needed 60 seconds to harden, just a few seconds longer and the screen was ruined and I had to start again. Needless to say I spent a lot of last week cleaning my screens!

I hope you think the results were worth the effort? These prints are quite monochromatic and not my usual style at all, I wonder if my colour choices were being influenced by the snowy landscape outside?

The backgrounds are different on each print.

Unable to resist adding some colour, I added some red ink to the last few pulls so these prints migrate through black and sepia to red.

Now I am just waiting for an order of mount (mat) boards to arrive so I can get them ready for sale, if the boards arrive in time I might be able to include a few of them in the Oxmarket Gallery exhibition.

I hope you have been having a great week and the weather in your part of the world isn’t causing too much disruption.

*Blue Peter is a UK children’s TV show famous for having segments where they demonstrated how you could turn empty bottles, cereal boxes and other everyday items into the most desirable, home-made toys and gifts.