Perfumery and Silk Screen

Ok, so I am really stoked about how this print came out, after spending countless hours in studio.

And of course with my perfume obsession... well... :)

 

To learn more about perfumery, check out - 7ahira.weebly.com

Silk Screen Process

For our last project in our print class, we were asked to create a 4 color print using silk screening.

What follows is a breakdown of the silk screen process:

Materials Needed 

1. Acetate and permanent markers 
2. Screen
3. Photo emulsion, emulsion sensitizer, and trough
4. Dark cupboard
5. Either a photo box (box with black uv lights and timer) or photo flood light and stopwatch and piece of glass
6. Sink
7. Spatula, fabric or screen print inks, and transparent base extender
8. Squeegee, registration board with hinge clamps, masking tape, and bumpers 
9. Acetate sheet and bumpers 
10. Spray bottle with water, and paper towel  
11. Emulsion remover 

Steps

1. Create an image, of what you wish to print, using permanent marker on acetate. The marker will be where the ink comes through, so think about how you want the image to come out. The marker must be opaque, so you may have to coat both sides of the acetate with the marker. (You can use 2 photo transparency prints on acetate instead, but there must be 2, taped together, for good opacity and image screening later on)

You may make as many separate images as would be layers for your screen. 

 

2. When your image is ready to be put on your screen, gather your screen, trough, photo emulsion, and sensitizer. You will mix the sensitizer with water first, and then the photo emulsion to activate the photo emulsion - go by the directions on your materials. 

3. Fill the trough, the silver triangle container pictured above, with the photo emulsion, at least a 1/4 inch thick. The reason for using so much photo emulsion is to get a good even covering on the screen.  Now, holding the screen up, lean the trough down and slowly coat the screen in one go (on the flat side) , lifting the trough back up to catch the rest of the material. Empty the left over emulsion back into its container for re-use - no wasting :)     Put your screen in a dark cupboard to dry flat for at least an hour. Go away, make some tea, mix some colors.  

4. If you have access to a light box filled with black uv lights, and with a timer attached, lucky you. Set the timer to 4 minutes (the longer hooked switch), place the screen in the box with your acetate images over top (the reverse direction of how you want them to print and on the flat side of the screen). Now place the glass on top of the screen and images, close the box, and set the timer to ON. 

If you do not have access to this sort of box, set up the flood light close above your screen covered with the acetate images and glass, in a dark room. Leave the light on for 15 minutes.

When your time is up, take out your screen. Your screen should be blue instead of the moss green now, shown above. Where the image is burned, should be a light green. Wash that light green out in a large sink with water and a soft sponge. Where the ink should come through should now be clear. 

5. Now you will want to gather your printing materials which include your registration board complete with acetate sheet for registration and clamp hinges for holding your screen in place, while you print. You should also gather your inks, transparent base extender, and spatula for mixing colors. You will also need masking tape, bumpers (small folded paper squares or cardboard bits to attach to your screen on the side it is not clamped down to the registration board; to level your screen), and your squeegee. Don't forget the screen! 

6. To screen, you will clamp your screen down to the registration board on one side, and add your bumpers to the other side. You will mask around your image with masking tape to cover those areas of your screen where you do not want the ink to go through. Using a spatula, you will add your ink above the image you will screen. Holding your screen up, you will pull the squeegee down over the image flooding your screen (for an even print). You will then put your screen back down, and pull the squeegee over the screen again. 

There should be a print of your image on the acetate, which will be used to register your image on whatever you are printing on. Lift your screen up again, and then use the squeegee to again flood the screen. Use the image on the acetate to register the image on the material you will print on. You can use a small amount of spray adhesive under the acetate to hold the acetate and the materials you will print on (paper, fabric, etc.) in place. Now that your material in the right place for printing, put the screen back down and run the squeegee over the image on screen again. Voila, a print! 

7. You can run about 5 to 6 image copies before your screen will need to be washed out with water. Wait for your screen to dry fully before you start printing again. And remember to register again using the acetate :) Repeat the above process with subsequent layers you wish to screen.

Below is the image I created to for my silk screen. It is created and printed in four layers, and with four colors.

 

8. Clean Up - Cleaning out your screen. Spray a fair amount of emulsion remover on your screen and use a scrubby to scrub out the emulsion. After the emulsion has come out, wash your screen with water. Wear gloves when cleaning out the screen as the emulsion remover contains skin irritants.

Trouble Shooting

A - Running ink 

- Make sure your screen is fully dry before you begin printing. 

- Make sure you have masked out all areas that you do not want ink to go through, especially around the edges of a screen. 

- Sometimes you might need to clean out your screen and begin again with re applying photo emulsion if ink is coming out of many areas you do not want

B - Emulsion will not come out
- If emulsion is left to dry on the screen for too long before exposure, the image may not wash out. In this case the screen will need to be washed out, and you may have to start from scratch. If it does not come out, the fabric on the screen may have to be replaced.

C - The ink is not coming through 

- Remember to flood the screen in between prints to keep the image wet, and not allow for bits of ink to dry in the image. 

- Sometimes you might need to clean out your screen and begin again with re applying photo emulsion, especially if very little ink is coming through 

D - The perfect image 

- Practice Warhol style, until you get what you want 

- Revel in imperfection

My teaching philosophy and style - Questions and Answers

1.     Describe some of the most exciting experiences you had in a classroom

I have begun to think about all pleasant learning filled experiences that I remember from all of my education across the years, and interestingly hardly any of the experiences happened within the classroom. I remember:

                                            i.     Going outside to sketch in nature in grade five

                                             ii.     Visiting a farm in one of the earlier grades, and learning how to milk a goat and sew a small pillow

                                               iii.     Gathering recycled materials for a collage project with my students in Peru

                                              iv.     Making rubbings of leaves and rocks outside

                                             v.     Sketching at the aquarium for an animation project

I suppose for in classroom experiences that I do remember are

                                              vi.     Creating clay vessels in class in grade three or four

                                                vii.     Creating pattern boards in grade three or four in which we could really do whatever we wanted

                                                 viii.     Sketching umbrellas in class in high school

                                               ix.     Creating our own plays in grade 12 drama – costume, makeup, auditions, directing, lighting, sound – all of our own doing 

                                             x.     Creating my own speech for a wedding, in Spanish, for a Spanish advanced class

                                               xi.     Writing creative stories

I suppose all of these experiences have experiential learning in them. Some include learning life skills, and the rest of the experiences, are all creative challenges that did not box me in as a student, human being, or artist. Setting ones own parameters is for some individuals like myself the most fulfilling and motivational because it provides a challenge of ones own doing. Give me freedom and I excel, box me in and watch me fade.

Now, is it more useful to have a bunch of little assignments based around skills learned, or a large project taken to completion of ones own choosing after small skills have been learned? 

2.     How do you think you could use some of these aspects within a creative setting, such as teaching art?

In teaching, creative setting or otherwise, I feel that experiential learning is essential for many students as it allows them to put theories (dictation, reading, and discussion) into practice, and thus truly learn via all various aspects and modes of learning. I feel that it is important to know as a teacher that there will be many perspectives in the classroom, and that there will also be a huge magnitude of learners – some that are slower or faster than others, some who thrive within structures, some who absolutely cannot, and others along the spectrum. In understanding this it becomes essential for the instructor to make allowances for students to work to their own potentials. Environment is also important, in that students do not need to just learn in the classroom, and students can perhaps be taken to other areas of the school, or community, or city to learn – this is also key in experiential learning. Fieldtrips are considered fun compared to school yet we lock students in classrooms during the sunny daylight hours.

I would allow students who wished to come up with their own projects, to take to completion. I feel that longer more involved projects, in which the student can truly explore is one of immense fulfillment. Since larger projects take longer, the teacher can give demos, give individual students help, and really facilitate learning for each student. When students then come back to view each others projects, and gather in critique, students are proud of projects in which they have been allowed to take the time to explore.

3.     What makes you uncomfortable in a classroom setting?

Classroom settings can be uncomfortable if too sterile, with nothing of interest on the walls. Classroom settings can also be uncomfortable if they are to structured, or too quiet, or too dark. Good lighting is a must. Elements of nature and comfort in the classroom are a necessity in making the classroom and learning a true part of daily life, and instilling that learning is all the time and lifelong. Within a class, students can become uncomfortable if bullying is happening with action to quell it, if students are picked on, if there is too much or too little structure, and if inequalities are occurring. Also certain types of discussion and subject matter can make students uncomfortable.

For example sexualized violence against women can be a very touchy subject for students for whom this may hit too close to home. Perhaps they or a family member or friend have been affected by such an incident. We as teachers may think this is an important subject to discuss, or bring up, but we also have to realize that we should all get to know our students before bringing up such material, and that we should create classroom contracts with students so that they may leave the room when such topics are discussed, without being looked at like “why are they leaving?” 

4.     What do you love about being in a class?

Within a class I like to get to know the people around me. I think that it is important to know who people are and where they are coming from. I enjoy this because it allows for greater comfort and humanization on both sides. I enjoy sharing ideas and having discussions to learn about others, their ideas, perspectives, and cultures. This makes for very interesting learning that is all encompassing. I also enjoy working on larger projects that I can fully research, carry our learning and experimentation within, and then creating something new or improved, or at least that I am genuinely happy with. I enjoy these larger projects, because they allow one to see how I think, and to see my process, while I have better understood how I think, and now, better know my process. I enjoy being able to take what I have learned and apply it to my own dreams and ideas. I enjoy the freedom of being able to do this.

This goes back to the perspectives of all students, and perhaps allowing them to work on what is important to them. 

5.     Do you think the instructor should be the primary source of information in a course?

I do not think that the instructor should be the primary source of information in the classroom. The instructor is not the internet or wikipedia, and even the internet and wiki get it wrong. Information can come from the internet, from books, from peers, from the self, from nature, from research and experimentation, etc. There are many places information can come from. I do believe however that the instructor should be very knowledgeable in what they are teaching, and be practicing it to an extent on the side. For example if the instructor is teaching a student how to do metal work, it is important that that instructor know how to do metal work, and also be working on it within a practice of sorts so that their skills and technologies are up to date, and they can best teach the students. The role of the instructor is to facilitate the learning in whatever ways possible.

6.     Describe two ways that students can be more involved in course content

Students can be more involved in course content by being given choice, perhaps to research a part of the course content. Then though their new research and via trial and error if it is a new skill they are learning that is a part of that content, then teach it to the rest of their peers. Students can also be more involved by creating their own long term project proposals that allow them to cover course content doing something that appeals to them and that is of their own imagining and want to do – self directed studies.

7.     What is the best way for you to absorb information? Describe why

The best way for me to absorb information is to be immersed within it body, mind, and soul. I must be able to see it and or feel, touch, taste, and or hear it. I learn by reading, listening, doing, watching, and writing. These are all important steps of an experiential process. This is total immersion, and immersion is a way for the mind, body, and soul to connect in a way as to fully understand a process, or and or learning. 

8.     What are the main things that a student can learn by taking an art course?

In taking an arts course, a student may learn a new technique or way of doing something, become better at understanding themselves and their work, being able to describe their work, being able to hone a skill, become better at critique and communication, and becoming better in visual communications. These are some of the important things a student can learn by taking a visual arts course. 

Monoprint and Drypoint Markmaking

Monoprint is created by producing a one off - printed image, meaning that it is the only production of that printed image.

Monoprint on Newsprint

Marks were made using a paintbrush and spray bottle filled with water onto a lightly inked sheet of acetate, and then painted over with more ink and the paintbrush. A rag was used to soften and whiten areas of the acetate by wiping ink, before printing. 

Monoprint on BFK Reeves

Marks were made using the end of a paintbrush to draw an image into a thick layer of dried ink on acetate. The image of the underwear was made the same way, but was then cut out of another piece of acetate and put overtop of the background acetate before printing took place. Colored pencil was used to place color in image after printing was complete.

Monoprint on BKF Reeves

Marks were made using a paintbrush and paintbrush ends into a half dry inked piece of acetate. 

Dry-point is created using a method called etching or scratching into a plastic or metal plate, in this case a plate made of hard plastic

Dry-point Hard Lines – Dense hard lines to create dark shadow and space 

 

Dry-point Cross Hatch – Fine and dense cross hatch lines to develop tone and shadow

 

Dry-point Detailed Fine Lines – Fine overlapping lines to create a sense of depth

The Art of Tara Donovan

 The sculptural works of artist, Tara Donovan, are organic, beautiful, and elusive. They are created from everyday, mundane objects. It, her work, is about the way one object in infinite nature and repetition, is composed with many of its kind; thus taking on a life of its own in a transformed form. 

The ideas behind the practice of Tara Donovan are many fold, and include infinity and expansion, mimicry of the way things grow, material interactions, illusions, shifts, and transformations, especially of viewpoints. Mrs. Donovan picks her materials first, and then uses a tedious process of putting together mass amounts of that material, to create a “biomorphic” piece that transcends the original material and object, transforming it into another.

Along with her sculptural pieces, Tara Donovan also creates prints. It is interesting to see the similarities between her sculptural pieces and prints which both take on the concepts of infinity, repetition, organic quality, and obsession. Her prints though taken also from the everyday materials, are much more line graphic in quality and are not 3-D although they may give off a sense of 3-D. The prints are also much smaller in scale as compared with the sculptural pieces.

 

Untitled (Styrofoam Cups and hot glue – 2003) Tara Donovan 

One of Three Untitled Works (relief print from rubber band matrix in three parts - 37 3/4” x 25 1/4” – 2006) – Tara Donovan

 

Why are the visual arts important?

I am currently in the post degree program for Education at the University of Victoria, in Victoria, BC. About 2 weeks ago, I began taking a Education Print Course for "How to teach printmaking in school", at UVIC.

We have been asked the following questions (stated below) in regards to visual arts and artists, to which I have given my thoughts (also below).

• Why is visual art important?   

Visual arts are a way of visually communicating with one another. Through advertising, illustrations, films, paintings, sculptures, and other forms of visual communication. We use these art forms to tell stories to one another, relate ideas to one another, to inspire one another, to bring out many emotions in one another. We also use these art forms to record each others histories.

Visual arts, music, dance and languages, are all various forms of communication, and each form has its strengths and weaknesses. Visual arts have the ability to pull on emotions, play with image use, create new ways of viewing others and the world, and to bring about the discussion of various topics. 

Where as with language, one must understand the language, with visual arts, babies, and peoples who may not all speak the same language are able to view and use the common sense of eyesight.

Visual arts are important to understanding how we as individuals view the worlds around us and inside of ourselves. Visual arts are important in recording our cultures, stories, and histories. Visual arts are important to understanding various aspects of media and multiple perspectives, and of understanding construction and deconstruction. Visual arts are also important as a way of expressing ones self, or of what an individual is thinking and or feeling. In short as one of the major ways of communication world wide, visual arts hold a very important place in society and the human world. 

•   What role does visual art play in our society? 

As stated above, the role of visual arts in our society is vastly important in the way we communicate with one another and understand the worlds around and inside of us. 

1. We use visual arts in interior design, public works design, clothing design, building design, and in all other design works. 
2. We use visual arts in recording historical events and stories both societal and personal. 
3. We use visual arts in museums to represent cultures of the past, and we use visual arts to express new ideas and ways of looking in galleries. 
4. Thus we use visual arts to examine things in new ways and to bring up discussion and or new ways of thinking and or viewing and or creating, but we also use these arts to record and or preserve stories, histories, and cultures for educational purposes. 
5. Last we use visual arts in all aspects of our lives as human beings to create decorative aspects, which appeal to our natures and aesthetics in design, dress, and so forth. 

•   What value is placed upon artists and their art, and why?  

The value placed upon artists and their arts is subjective. 

There are many areas in which art is subjective in value, in regards to who in particular likes it, and or to what the art speaks to. For example a car designer or fashion designer who is aesthetically on top of trend and game may be highly valued by those in society who enjoy and who can afford the products and brands of these designs. An animator who is just a very small cog in a large machine may be undervalued. Many times it is only through thorough deconstruction of an animation that their work may even come to light. A very good photographer is only as valued as the clients who know him can afford. 

And of course that opinion of one states what is good, is also subjective, as there are many perspectives of good. 

Also, an artist may be very talented but also shy, and so they may be totally unknown, though still a valid artist. However, because that artist is an unknown, they thus, may not be valued at all. 

Another area of subjection is that area in which those in positions of stating whether art is good or not so good make their decisions, and decide who they will write about, who will get the gallery show, or get the magazine write up, etc. An artist must be able to explain and or defend their work. If an artist wishes to be “successful” it would be a good idea for that artist to be in touch with what is going on in the world around them, and try to create art that would either be something unique, and or appealing to the most amount people, or wealthy people.

Ideally for many artists, at the heart, lies true communism, or the ability to create what one would like, without having to worry about funds for food and or shelter, and or lifestyle. Realistically we do not live in an ideal communist society and so then art must be valued. However, in deciding then that art is a commodity, the value of the art and the artist will ultimately lie in the hands of those in power of "grading" art, and or of the supply and demand of the marketplace.

Hello - My name is Tahira and I love steamed milk

Hello, My name is Tahira, and I am a practicing artist.
However, I am awful at both documenting and recording my work and ideas.
This new blog is an attempt to change that, and begin documentation.

Hmmm... I suppose I will give a better overview of who I am - so I'll just share 7 random pieces of information about myself, and a photo.

1. I did my undergraduate degree of Fine Arts at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where I majored in media arts and animation. 
2. I am obsessed with old skool perfumery, and hold a two year diploma in medical aromatherapy. 
3. I love steamed milk made with half and half. 
4. My favorite smell are jasmine sambac, amber, and cypress.
5. I enjoy learning about history and culture while I travel, and research is my second nature.
6. My favorite cities are Istanbul, London, New York, Calgary, Vancouver, and Cuzco 
7. I find the study of ethics to be fascinating. 

If you have stumbled upon this, or otherwise, I hope you, either way, enjoy it.

Ciao for now