Creative Day Out aka How We Made a Mess of Screen Printing

28th August 2015

Every now and then it’s good to take a break from the all-consuming world of web to learn something that doesn’t involve a READ.md on GitHub.

It was with this in mind that Tom suggested a day screen printing. He ensured us it would not induce Art GCSE flashbacks but instead would expose us to different creative processes which might inspire us. At a bare minimum it was a day away from the screen, so you were hard pushed to find any objections.

The Screen Team

Sonsoles Studios

Luckily we found the brilliant Sonsoles Print Studio in Peckham who did courses for know-nothings like us. Our tutor for the day was the wonderful Ann-Marie who thankfully was nothing like our art teachers, except for the fact that she could teach, and… actually… she probably was quite like our art teachers except back then we were young and didn’t appreciate them. Sorry teachers. Thank you Ann-Marie.

How Screen Printing Works

It’s pretty simple in theory. You cut out a paper mask of the design, create a useable mask using a big fancy machine, place this on a screen with some paper underneath and push some paint through it with a squeegee. Rinse and repeat with different colours and eventually you’ll end up with an awesome layered piece of art. Or a crap one…

How we got on

Ann-Marie got to work taking us through the possibilities of what we could achieve and being kind about our limitations. The day allowed us to make a two colour print which immediately presented too many choices for most of us.

The regrettable competitive environment cultivated in our hack day reared its head again as we asked to be judged but was replaced by one of cooperation. Anne Marie declared us to all be winners, and she was right.

We’re toying with the idea of the ultimate decision being made by Etsy after we place all four prints up for sale and see whose sells first. Obviously the most likely scenario here will be that none of them will sell proving to us that we all equally suck. Maybe we should stick with Anne-Marie’s decision. We all win!

The Finished Items