My process: After constructing the screen, I went around the edges of the opening with soywax, applying it in a feather-in to soften the hard edges of the tap. The edge becomes irregular, similar to torn paper. I then selected some dried bromegrass and other plant material (finer grasses) and laid them out on newspaper; put the screen on top and lay a thick bead of clear alginate paste on the top of the screen, squeegeeing it down over the grass. Let it set up for a few minutes, squeegeed on more; let it set, then turn it over; most of the grass sticks to the screen at this point, but whatever comes off can be placed back on the screen.
This is not an exact process - what I'm after here is texture more than image. So I let the screen dry upside down, checking it and pressing the grass back whenever it started to buckle and lose contact with the paste. When it was dry, I peeled off the grass and the preprint was done. I was doing a smaller grass screen at the same time, btw. It was accomplished the same as the big one, but has about 8"x8" opening, and the grass was all the finer stuff, no brome. After preprint, the screens sat and waited for me for several days - amazingly, the cats left them alone!
Fast forward to Sunday [when I'd called in sick @ work!]. Well, there is "sick" and then there is SICK. I was "sick" - queasy tummy, but still functioning. I had [much earlier - several weeks] dyed two halves of a cotton thrift-store sheet explicitly to use fo r this technique/experiment, so I pinned the sheet onto my printboard. I positioned the large screen on top of 2-3 fresh grass springs, laid down a generous bead of Jaquard discharge paste, and squeegeed it; moved the screen, making sure to overlap the edges, squeegeed again. I repeated this until I was happy with the effect I could see from the wet on the cloth, then I stopped with the big screen. Repeated the same thing with the little screen. I let them dry [mostly], and then brought out a steam iron - I was doing all this outdoors - in the back yard so no one could see how "sick" I really was!
As I started to steam, the images became more and more evident. I really like what came out of the project. These first photos are the larger screen - please excuse the glare of light from the camera:
The first [at left] is a long shot of most of what I printed with the large screen. The dyed fabric was a bronze/eggplant dye combo [one of my fave color combos!] The other two photos are detail shots of the line of print. The top right is at the left side of the print, the lower detail is toward the right end of it. I absolutely love the texture of the grass.
Here is a single photo of the smaller screen - I just printed a row with this one, as well. I think it would work perhaps to print a row with the small screen, then come back and print the large one on top of it [or vice-versa] - any opinions on that?
And finally, I had previously drawn a little screen [9"x11"-ish] using elmer's glue gel a few weeks back, so I brought it out and pulled discharge paste over it in a sort of linear orentation. When I made the screen, I was freehanding, so the "repeat" on the pattern is a little wonky, but I don't think it turned out too badly:
The original image is one whole stem, with two half-stems at the edge of the screen. This screen was NOT soft-edged as the leaves one was. I think my little border is nicely solid - this is "most" of the border. there are a couple more sprigs on the ends. This piece has not yet been washed, so I will cry real tears if that beautiful gold all turns white [and then I'll dry my tears and dunk it in a gold dyebath!].
I also dsp'd a couple of dye screens, but I have to admit - I'm really loving the dsp discharge right now, so the dye may have to wait until I get some of this grass stuff out of my system! Warning: Please try this at home!! As for me, I have the other half of that sheet ready to go, and will be working on another piece in the near future!
