What: Falconry
Where: Biggleswade (north of London)
Who: Birds of Prey Centre
When: Friday, 11th May 2012
With: Lydia Burland
Why: Birds of prey, be they peregrine falcons in Look & Read or ORLY owls, are cool. Plus, it goes nicely with the horse-riding and archery!
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Friday 4 May 2012
Screen Painting
As with my last adventure, this screen painting experience (with tea and cake) was purchased from Groupon for the princely sum of £36 for two people. It was offered by the London Textiles Studios http://www.londontextilesstudios.co.uk/ and held at Craft Central http://www.craftcentral.org.uk/ on St John's Square in EC1M.
Communication with LTS was very good; as the specific date I asked about was fully booked, I could chose between a range of dates and times which were more relaxed than stringent conditions set out by the Groupon voucher. We had some trouble knowing how to get into the building when we first arrived, however this was our (read, my) fault for not reading the confirmation properly.
The session was scheduled from 10:30-12:30 and did get off to a bit of a slow start. This was partially down to waiting for everyone to turn up, getting settled and our class teacher having to go upstairs to "get some hot water for the kettle"... Once we got started, it was a bit of a race to the end!
First, screen painting involves creating a stencil/s of your chosen design. This might be a repeated patterns or overlapping images, but both Laurence and I went for a single multi-coloured, multi-layered image. The stencil is cut out of paper or card with a scalpel, with different stencils for each colour layer. My stencil was an incredibly detailed chameleon, inspired by an image in one of the design idea books provided. I really enjoyed doing the design, and I was really pleased with the result. The stencil worked perfectly - so much so, that I took it home with me at the end of the session! I think it would work very well as a repeated, overlaid image, with variously coloured chameleons on a tote bag. Something for next time, perhaps...
We were provided with fabric (free), tote bags (£3) or t-shirts (5), which you stick down to the surface. You lie the stencil on top, use newspaper strips to protect the surrounding area and place the screen on top and hold it down firmly. Paint - a mixture of binder and dye - is liberally applied to the top of the design and dragged down then up with a squeegee. After removing the excess paint, you have to apply even pressure across the design, to make sure the paint transfers evenly to the fabric. Once dried (either in air or with a hairdryer) you can then repeat with a different colour to build up the desired image! Once ironed, it becomes washable, too.
My only real criticism of the teacher would be that we both felt misleading information was given about the potency of overlapping layers... It should have been made much clearer that a top layer would not completely cover a bottom layer, but would be more translucent. This became quite clear with Laurence's design; he opted for a combination of two game-related logos on a t-shirt, and although the final result was really clearly defined, we both agreed that a simple black face over red logo might have been more effective.
This was a pretty intense two hours, but I really enjoyed being creative and learning a new painting method. Screen painting is really simple; once you have the screen and squeegee (both of which can be washed and reused over and over) and the right paint, you're ready to go! I would definitely like to try this again sometime.
This is for you if...
If you're not much of a skilled painter, but want to paint anyway. I was never that great at art - my designs managed to look neither realistic nor abstract, merely... amateur. The nature of screen painting makes it great for blocks of colour and solid lines.
Recommendations
This would be quite fun as a group before an event, creating coordinating t-shirts for a charity event, hen-party, school group. However, you could quite easily go on your own and have a great time, too.
Communication with LTS was very good; as the specific date I asked about was fully booked, I could chose between a range of dates and times which were more relaxed than stringent conditions set out by the Groupon voucher. We had some trouble knowing how to get into the building when we first arrived, however this was our (read, my) fault for not reading the confirmation properly.
The session was scheduled from 10:30-12:30 and did get off to a bit of a slow start. This was partially down to waiting for everyone to turn up, getting settled and our class teacher having to go upstairs to "get some hot water for the kettle"... Once we got started, it was a bit of a race to the end!
First, screen painting involves creating a stencil/s of your chosen design. This might be a repeated patterns or overlapping images, but both Laurence and I went for a single multi-coloured, multi-layered image. The stencil is cut out of paper or card with a scalpel, with different stencils for each colour layer. My stencil was an incredibly detailed chameleon, inspired by an image in one of the design idea books provided. I really enjoyed doing the design, and I was really pleased with the result. The stencil worked perfectly - so much so, that I took it home with me at the end of the session! I think it would work very well as a repeated, overlaid image, with variously coloured chameleons on a tote bag. Something for next time, perhaps...
We were provided with fabric (free), tote bags (£3) or t-shirts (5), which you stick down to the surface. You lie the stencil on top, use newspaper strips to protect the surrounding area and place the screen on top and hold it down firmly. Paint - a mixture of binder and dye - is liberally applied to the top of the design and dragged down then up with a squeegee. After removing the excess paint, you have to apply even pressure across the design, to make sure the paint transfers evenly to the fabric. Once dried (either in air or with a hairdryer) you can then repeat with a different colour to build up the desired image! Once ironed, it becomes washable, too.
My only real criticism of the teacher would be that we both felt misleading information was given about the potency of overlapping layers... It should have been made much clearer that a top layer would not completely cover a bottom layer, but would be more translucent. This became quite clear with Laurence's design; he opted for a combination of two game-related logos on a t-shirt, and although the final result was really clearly defined, we both agreed that a simple black face over red logo might have been more effective.
This was a pretty intense two hours, but I really enjoyed being creative and learning a new painting method. Screen painting is really simple; once you have the screen and squeegee (both of which can be washed and reused over and over) and the right paint, you're ready to go! I would definitely like to try this again sometime.
This is for you if...
If you're not much of a skilled painter, but want to paint anyway. I was never that great at art - my designs managed to look neither realistic nor abstract, merely... amateur. The nature of screen painting makes it great for blocks of colour and solid lines.
Recommendations
This would be quite fun as a group before an event, creating coordinating t-shirts for a charity event, hen-party, school group. However, you could quite easily go on your own and have a great time, too.
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