Summer Screen Printing Workshops in Birmingham

For anyone interested in learning to screen print I have a few different workshops coming up in Birmingham over summer and will be listing more details on my blog. The first one is my regular 'Introduction to Screen Printing on Paper' which will be on Saturday the 24th of June and also repeated on Saturday the 2nd of September.

 

In this hands on workshop participants will be learn how to make a photo stencil and screen print an image, illustration or design of their own. First they will coat a silk screen with light sensitive photo emulsion, then they will expose their A4 black and white image onto the screen and wash it out to create a photo stencil. Next participants will learn how to set up to screen print including how to register two different layers of colour. They will use a vacuum screen bed and print using colourful water based inks, a squeegee and a silk screen. By the end of the workshop participants will have hand pulled a series of at least ten screen prints on paper.

This workshop also includes details of materials and equipment suitable for screen printing on paper and it is accompanied by a comprehensive hand out with step by step instructions and a list of materials, equipment and suppliers. Basically it covers almost everything I have learnt over the last ten years! 

We will be working with existing images so participants will need a black and white image of their own which is suitable for screen printing. Some basic guidance for images can be given. All other materials and equipment will be provided during the workshop. The price of the workshop is £80 per person and places are very limited so please get in touch if you are interested. For more information and to book a place please email Karoline karoline.rerrie@yahoo.com

Rainbows for Cambridge Contemporary Crafts

 

Earlier this year I was invited to take part in the Pride celebrations at Cambridge Contemporary Crafts. It's a great opportunity to have some of my rainbow coloured screen prints on display so this month I've been working on new prints especially for the gallery. The first of these is some rainbow coloured hearts which have taken me a while to perfect. It usually takes me several attempts to work out the design and colours of prints made using hand cut stencils. But I don't mind because the printing process is so much fun and so are the results! 

First I drew the design, then hand cut the stencils for each of the three different layers and lastly I screen printed the overlapping layers of colour to create the prints. After trying darker, then lighter shades of colour I also tried printing the three different layers of colour in different orders. After a lot of deliberation I decided on lighter shades and yellow for the background. I finished an edition of twenty Rainbow Hearts on A4 white Fabriano Unica paper. Hopefully these will be on display at Cambridge Contemporary Crafts during June. https://www.cambridgecrafts.co.uk/

Screen prints for Ukraine

 

This is my limited edition A4 screen print ‘Olena’ and she is one of my favourite prints from last year. Olena is inspired by traditional Ukrainian folk dress, vinok flower wreaths and the courage of ordinary Ukrainian women. She is screen printed in the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag. But I also printed a version called 'Anastasia' in yellow and red. Some of the shops I work with helped me sell my 'Olena' screen prints and all proceeds went to charities helping Ukrainians affected by the war. I still have some prints left and they are £28 each. If you are interested in buying one you can email me at karoline.rerrie@yahoo.com and I will send you more details.

Olena is a three colour screen print and here are photographs showing each layer as it is screen printed. I started with the yellow background before carefully adding the details in blue.

Lastly I added yellow petals to the flowers around Olena's head.They were a slightly darker shade of yellow from the background.

Tutton & Young's Open Exhibition

It was a lovely surprise to find out my new screen prints 'Sunflower' and 'Peace' have been selected for the Tutton & Young Open Exhibition at Atelier Beside the Sea in Brighton. Both prints are entirely made by hand using simple hand cut stencils and overlapping layers of colour. It's a technique I've been working hard to perfect over the last few months. So I am especially pleased that these prints are going to be part of an exhibition featuring work by 130 different artists!

The open exhibition takes place at Tutton & Young's new shop and gallery space, Atelier Beside the Sea which is on Brighton Seafront. The private view is on Thursday the 14th of July from 6-8pm and the exhibition runs until the 3rd of September. But don’t worry if you aren’t able to go to Brighton… because all the work will be available to view online! https://atelierbrighton.co.uk/pages/atelier-open

The Art of Screen Printing

Packed up some of my favourite inks, squeegees, screens and even a bucket to take to Hall Green for a two hour demonstration! The theme of the demonstration was 'The art of Screen Printing' and it was for Hall Green Art Society, a group of local artists. I prepared two different techniques of screen printing to do during the evening but wasn't sure I would be able to get everything done! Luckily what I had planned actually filled the two hours perfectly. I started by screen printing this sunset using hand cut stencils and three overlapping layers of bright coloured ink. Then I also printed this flower design using photo stencils and three different colours. I just managed to print the final colour on a couple of flowers and that left ten minutes for the prints to dry!

 

 

Rainbow Coloured Flowers

Here's a pretty pastel coloured flower screen print I've been working on using just three colours and some basic hand cut stencils. Originally I created the design as an example for workshops but it was so popular I decided to screen print a finished edition! There were meant to be twenty five prints in the edition but my squeegee bade fell out and ruined one. Then I dropped the metal handle and it ripped my screen, what a disaster! It's a shame because almost all the other prints were perfect and I ended up with an edition of twenty two plus a couple of extras. I always try and have some spare prints just incase any in the edition get damaged... which they usually do!

A few of these rainbow coloured flowers have already sold, others have gone to shops and galleries and a few will be coming with me to events in Spring and Summer. My first real world event of 2022 is the Blue Magpie Craft Fair on Saturday the 30th of April. It's a lovely event organised by Anna Taylor who makes the most amazing food including lots of delicious cakes. The fair actually takes place in Anna's home Elmslie House in Malvern. More information can be found on the Blue Magpie website https://www.bluemagpie.co.uk/

Tutton and Young - Made for Ukraine

I screen printed a finished edition of twenty 'Blue and Yellow Sunflowers' using hand cut stencils and just two colours. They are printed on A4 size 300gsm white Snowden cartridge paper and the colours are lovely and bright. But I was a bit nervous about trying to sell all the prints for charity on my own. Very luckily Tutton and Young decided to organise 'Made for Ukraine' on Instagram and they put a call out for makers to participate by selling or auctioning work in aid of the Disaster Emergency Committee's Ukraine appeal. I was glad to be able to participate in the week long online event alongside fifty other makers! The event started on Monday the 14th of March and by Tuesday evening my edition of twenty sunflower screen prints had all sold out and raised £500 for the DEC! The prints sold so well I decided to screen print a small second edition of ten 'Blue and Yellow Sunflowers'. They have almost all sold and so far raised about £750 in total. I'm really hoping this will help people fleeing the devastating war in Ukraine. The news has been so distressing and I think we all need something positive to hope for.