Screen Printing Class (2025)

Barry has always wanted to take a screen printing class.  He has had a dream that maybe we could set up a little studio at home for him to produce pieces to sell.  On one of our art jaunts in Austin, we came across a Co-Op at The Canopy that has classes.  Barry signed up first, and out of curiosity, I decided to join him.

What we thought would be "easy" turned out to be quite the complicated & technical process!  We completed the class realizing that unless you are really committed, AND have the space to set up stations for water pressure washing, exposing screens, chemical storage, etc. it might not be that easy to "do this at home".  It's no wonder the co-op exists with members being able to produce in this studio. 

During the 4 week class, we learned all of the basics of the studio/materials, how to prep screens, etc.  Each week our homework was to come up with designs for paper & fabric projects, with the last week being free for our choosing (paper or fabric).  

Since beginners learn one-color printing, I decided to combine my paper design with a Chinese "Chop" (seal) that was given to me as a gift from one of my dad's very close friend's in Taiwan.  It is also the "Year of the Snake", so my graphic includes a snake design, and my "Sun" emblem, representing my maiden name.

For my fabric design, I was lazy, and used a design from one of my dad's art works to make tea towels.  Luckily I have the inventory of all of his works!  This is the one I chose:

...and for my final project, I decided to just do a variation of the snake design on tote bags (and some T-Shirts).  The bags made for great "gift" goody bags for our upcoming trip to Hawaii!  Here is a a synopsis of what I did...

Here are Barry's works of art!

We produced enough for gifts for Hawaii and then some!

We will try POTTERY next!