By Lorna Nakell

On Sunday, March 8th I took the Silk Screening 101 class at DIY Lounge at collage on Alberta.  This class was taught by Nicole Cipriano.  I have a small amount of print making experience but have always wanted to take a silk screening class to learn more techniques for printing multiple images.  This was a great class for someone like me with a small amount of experience, but also for those with no experience.  Because the class size was so small (only 4 students) we all received a good amount of assistance with the process. 

The four hour class gave me enough time to make several prints.  I used the time to experiment with a variety of papers.  I was so happy with the outcome of my printed design that after the class was over I integrated two of the prints I made into a project I was working on outside the class.  Below are photos from the class as well as a painting I made incorporating the prints as a collaged element.

Students printed on cotton fabrics as well as paper.  Nicole made fabric inks and other water-based inks available for experimentation.

Nicole built our screens for us and prepped them with photo emulsion.  This is my screen with a typewriter image all ready for inking.

One of the students is practicing putting emulsion on a screen with a rubber squeegee.

This was the setup Nicole designed for burning the photo image onto the screen.

This is the finished painting/collage I made in the weeks following the class.  It incorporates two of the silk screen typewriter images I made in the class.