A Love Affair with Letterpress and Screenprint

I think I'm in love.

But let me start at the beginning. 

In college, I was all about letterpress. We had an amazing letterpress studio at The University of Kansas. I even did my Independent Study courses in Letterpress. It's so romantic, and rustic and tangible. There's just something about creating a lino cut block from scratch, or setting your own type with the heavy lead. I wasn't really cut out for the slick computer graphic design coursework, using Photoshop and Illustrator. I felt much more at home creating things with texture and imperfections.

Here is a letterpress video filmed on site at the University of Kansas featuring my wonderful professor.



But when I graduated, I knew that I'd be leaving my love of letterpress behind in Kansas. It's not like a Heidelberg Press fits easily in an apartment. So time went by, and occasionally I'd make lino cut blocks, or do little printmaking projects, but nothing really extensive.

I have been waxing and waning for a few years about learning screenprinting. I had never tried it before, and was slightly intimidated by the whole emulsion process, equipment, mess, and space required. A little while ago I felt like it was time to try some new techniques. I started out making vinyl stencils with my Silhouette Cameo and doing a "paint on screenprint" technique. I was fairly happy with the results. Then I moved onto using vinyl stencils and bleach to create a batik/tye dye effect. My confidence was growing. I felt that my Silhouette Cameo could ease the process of learning to screen print. I knew that I could make a vinyl stencil and adhere it to a silk screen frame. So I started gathering supplies, and somehow decided it was going to be "a good idea" to make my own silk screen frames using Speedball fabric and unfinished wood frames. (It actually ended up working very well.) Once my stencil designs were finalized, I cut them out using my Cameo, adhered them to the bottom of my frames, taped them up and waited a few days. Then I had another grand idea- to mix my own "custom paint colors". Yep - I'm an artist - always taking the long road.

So this week my kitchen became a full blown screenprint studio. Squeegees everywhere, spatulas on the countertops, newspaper covering the tables...the whole deal. My "plan A" was to screenprint on my patterned fabric. Bad idea. The fabric was too dark and the ink not quite opaque enough. So I moved to "plan B" (aka Mike's Idea) which was to screen print on knit jersey and make an applique. FAIL! Finally "plan C" was to modify my typical bag design to use a solid color fabric on the front, with the pattern fabric incorporated. SUCCESS!

I had the same magical feeling while screenprinting in my kitchen as I did in my college letterpress class. The one where I'd ink the platen, roll the cylinder over the set type and my design would appear crisp and glossy. All those years later, and it still felt the same. The tiny imperfections, the mistakes of not inking enough, the trial and error. Those are things you don't get to experience if you rely on a computer for all your design work.

And the finished product : Amazing. I could not be more thrilled. It's true- I am in love.

Robot Argyle Zippered Wet Bag ($18) available HERE.

Robot Argyle Link Loop Diaper Bag ($16) available HERE.

6 Silhouette Cameo Projects

Oh how I LOVE my Silhouette Cameo. I have only had it for 3 months, and my list of projects TO DO is a mile long. Here's just a few things of the things I have made so far....

1.Banner - My friend Karen had twins just 3 weeks ago, so I decorated her front garden with a "Welcome Home Thomas & Sienna" sign. I used a cardstock called  "Creamy" by DCWV.  The paper has a slight slick sheen/coating to it so it was the perfect paper to endure the outdoors for a few days. The Silhouette file I used was called banner kit - item # 28108. I downloaded it as a free weekly shape, but it can be purchased for $.99. I layered the coated cardstock over a solid white cardstock. I used twine to thread through each letter and hang the banner with.

2. Un-Paper Towel Vinyl. I created this with the Silhouette Studio software and used the black premium Silhouette vinyl. The font is called Tangerine, I downloaded it for free from ScrapVillage.com. We have a reusable paper towel dispenser but no one quite knows what it is if they are not familiar with our kitchen. The dispenser is from  Etsy Shop madeintheredbarn. This is easily one of my favorite items - ever.

3. I ❤ Randyland onesie. This I made for my friend Jenn who's expecting a baby girl any day now. It is inspired by the Randyland episode of Hoarders. I'll let you in on a secret. I have a small group of friends and we all log on Facebook and watch Hoarders together. It's our guilty pleasure and weekly motivation to clean.  Didn't see the Randyland Episode??? Check it out here. I had the pleasure of visiting Randyland this summer while I was in Wildwood, NJ. It was an experience. The onesie is hand-dyed purple, and I used Silhouette Studio to create the I ❤ Randyland design with a stock font I have on my computer. I used white flocked heat transfer from Silhouette and applied that to a piece of knit jersey, then appliqued and it to the onesie. 

4. Rock Me Tee. What happens when you have tickets to see Old Crow Medicine Show, but have nothing appropriate to wear? You make your own Wagon Wheel tee. Please tell me you know of OCMS??? No? Check this out:

I used a plain grey tee that I had hanging in my closet, created my own wagon wheel design (or I guess I could have bought this one from Silhouette). To make the text curved I followed a tutorial on using "text to path". After it was all done, I used black flocked heat transfer material and ironed it on.

5. Owl "screenprint" dress. Every first grader needs something super unique for the first day of school. I made this tee + fabric dress for Lilly, and then she informed me that she wanted "something with an owl" to wear for the first day of school. (At the eleventh hour) I purchased an owl shape from the Silhouette store and made a vinyl cut out shape to use as my template.

Once I had the vinyl placed on the dress where I wanted it, I put a layer of cardboard in between the front and back of the dress so I wouldn't get any bleed through and used a small amount of brown Jacquard Textile paint and applied it with a sponge. It took about 2 coats of paint to get a good coverage. Once the paint was dry I peeled off the vinyl and gave it a quick heat set with my iron.

6. Hot air balloon centerpieces.  These I made for my friend Karen's baby shower (yep same Karen from the banner sign above). It was actually my first "big" project using my Silhouette Cameo. I was inspired by this picture from the Jessicakes Blog:

image from jessicakesblog

I used two shapes from the Silhouette Shape Store, the Girly Hot Air Balloon, and the 5 Clouds:

Since Karen was having boy/girl twins, and the baby shower colors were blue and pink, I picked a plain pink and blue cardstock for the balloons. I made the balloons double sided (used some spray adhesive to layer everything together) and I found a cute white textured cardstock to use for the clouds.  I used a brown cardstock and a modified version of the balloon basket, and used a tiny hole punch in the corners. I tied 2 ply twine through the holes to make the basket hang down. Our local florist sold me the card stakes for $.25 each and I found pink and white begonias at a garden center. The plant pots are from Ikea and I used 3/8" grosgrain ribbon threaded through the "lace" top.

So there you have it...just a few of my Silhouette Cameo projects.