Weekend class at the Power House

First two colors printed

The final print - four colors

There were only four students in this class. Kathy, on the right came from the Cleveland, Ohio area and stayed at the Inn.Click on the photos to see them larger.
We worked on reduction screen printing, which is also called the suicide method - because you can never go back. It is a difficult concept, but the only way to make a print with just one screen, using the drawing fluid and screen filler method. I had tried to explain the process on previous blogs. Everything that is to be any color in the print has to be included in the first stencil printed with the screen. Then by layering colors over the first color, wherever the stencil is open, the print can be completed. Good registration is so important and she did a great job. In the photo on the left only two colors have been printed, on the right two more colors have been printed on the darker gray and a soft dark red in just two spots, over the blue - a Santa hat and a Solo cup.

My Class on Oct. 27 & 28 at the Power House

Here is a link for my class, I am looking forward to being on the campus for two days and teaching screen printing. I will have some ideas along for prints at the Power House, but hopefully my students will come with an idea of what they want to do.
We will be making a small edition of prints (12) in this class.We will be using a reduction technique in which the printed area gets smaller for each color that is printed. The unprinted paper can be one of the colors. The print paper will be 9” x 12” and the image should be no larger than 7” x 10”. You could use a copier to size an image. I will have some suitable designs at the class; but it is better to print something you have a feeling for. You can work from your own sketch, photograph or a composite of pasted up images. The finished print will be the same size as whatever you are working from. From now on I will refer to this as the working drawing. If you use a photograph, get a good photocopy of it enlarged to the size of your finished print and keep the original handy to refer to. You can use a copier to enlarge or reduce whatever images you want to use. Plan to have at least a one inch margin around your print. I have  a photo of a reduction print below.
It was printed with light blue, dark purple, black and iridescent blue.  You could plan to print about 4 colors ( + or -). I’m looking forward to our class. http://roycroftprintmaker.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-first-step.html. This link to my screen printing blog will give you some idea of how this works. “Another try at a reduction print” – start with “The fourth and Final Color” and the blog will take you through the process.

E's Trees - sketch through 4th color

Here is a link to a site that shows a different reduction method. She paints on the screen filler directly on the screen instead of using drawing fluid and filler as I do.   http://ilovesmesomeart.livejournal.com/610.html
We could try doing that too.

Roycroft Conference

You are invited to come to western NY and the Roycroft Campus for an intellectually and aesthetically stimulating weekend, just as it was in Elbert Hubbard's time.You are invited to come to western NY and the Roycroft Campus for an intellectually and aesthetically stimulating weekend, just as it was in Elbert Hubbard’s time. A wine tasting evening, artisan demonstrations, Campus architectural tours, a delicious organic dinner, and lectures spanning topics from Rosicrucianism to Dard Hunter’s graphic designs and restoration of the Roycroft Inn murals are set in the quaint Village of East Aurora while the fall foliage colors are at their finest. 

 The conference schedule and registration form are on the Roycroft Campus Corporation website. 

I am not going to participate in the conference because I have a two day class scheduled for the following weekend and I'm not up to two weekends in a row.

by Laura Wilder

However, the tiles that I printed will be there and my friend, Laura Wilder will be having an exhibit in the Power House and giving a talk about her block printing experience. Block printing is similar to screen printing as the prints are built up in layers.

Tiles have been printed

 Printed tiles at the Power House

The tiles have been printed - because they are so heavy, I printed them right at at the Power House on the Roycroft Campus. I didn't want to haul them home, down and up my basement stairs and cart them back to the campus. The three designs were printed with black acrylic ink onto the terra cotta tiles. They will be available at the Roycroft Conference, October 18-21.

After I made the photographic screens, I screwed some wood strips to the backs in one corner for registration. I had to clamp each screen to the tile before I printed them - the tiles are not really flat and I had to pull the squeegee in two directions to get the image printed. I did this right after I made a presentation to a Roads Scholar group, telling them about
screen printing. I demonstrated by printing the last color on a multicolored print using two screens.

Tile design for the Roycroft Power House

This is an original image that I made to print the tiles that will have the Roycroft Power House on them.

I didn't feel as if the print below that I had made for the presentation book would be the right format for this project.

I found a photo from the opening night on the web and made a new print of it.

The angle of the building and the setting were more in keeping with the other two images that I had made of the Chapel and the Copper Shop.

print in presentation book

After making the image, I printed it in black, scanned it, added the words and made and made a photo screen from a transparency that I printed with my laser printer from my computer.

Now, I have the three screens ready to print.
I am just waiting for the staff at the RCC to get the tiles cleaned and I will go over to the Power House where I will print them. They will be printed on the terra cotta tiles with black acrylic ink.

Here are the other two designs that I made for the photo screens.

the Copper Shop

On the Roycroft Campus, edition of 50, 2006

This is the print that I will use for the Copper Shop tiles. I will use only the screen print that was used to make the darkest color in this print

This is a print that I had made back in 2006. I created the darkest image with drawing fluid and screen filler. then I printed it onto a sheet of paper that was glued down to the screen bed. This would be my guide to create the stencils for the other two colors. I used a second screen to make a reduction print of the two other colors. The Stonehenge paper (Fawn) would serve as the lightest value in the print. A coppery light terra cotta color would be the lighter, medium color and a warm gray-brown would be on the roof and some of the shadows. After I had printed those colors, I replaced the screen with the first screen that I had made and printed a very dark brown on top of the other colors. I feel as if this print captures the look and feel of the Copper Shop, with it's front gardens and the great, sheltering tree. This building was built in 1902 as the original blacksmith shop and later became the copper shop. I have been fortunate enough to have been a member of the Roycroft Campus Corporation
ever since it started. I have taught screen printing classes there in the Copper Shop and now have one scheduled for October 27 & 28. This will be the weekend after the Arts and Crafts Conference, Oct. 18 - 21,2012 in East Aurora, NY. I have had a semi-permanent display of my original screen prints in the Copper Shop Gallery for many years. The image that I will use for the Copper Shop on the tiles will be the darkest-first screen that I made for this print

The Second Tile - The Copper Shop

The second tile will be an image of  the Copper Shop. This is the gallery of Arts and Crafts style furniture, books, pottery, stained glass and all sorts of artisan made work. I have been very pleased to have had a semi-permanent exhibit of my prints in the gallery even before the Roycroft Campus Corporation bought it.

The Copper Shop - built 1902

Back when Kitty Turgeon owned the "Roycroft Gift Shop" she had my prints in the shop for sale. I have always loved all things Roycroftie and took the first Elderhostel that was held on the campus. That was when Kitty saw my work and asked me to have a show of them in her shop. Screen printing was never an Arts and Crafts technique, but I felt that my process of painting the original images directly on the screen and doing all of the rest of the printing work myself fit the arts and crafts criteria perfectly. Later, Kitty suggested that I apply for the Roycroft Renaissance Mark.

I was awarded that privilege and for years I participated in the indoor and outdoor shows with the RALA group. I was even the mark chairman for 4 years and I designed two posters for the summer festivals.
A few years ago, I made a print of the Copper Shop. It was made with about four colors. I used two screens, one had a line drawing of the building and the other was used to make a reduction print with all of the colors other than the line drawing. First, I printed all of the colors and then printed the line drawing on top of them. This image is the line drawing of the Copper Shop - I will use it to print tiles that were recently removed from the building and replaced with new terra cotta tiles from the Boston Valley Pottery.