Snip and tear

Following on from Monday's blog about rejecting the top portion of the latest piece, it was a simple matter of making that snip and tearing the piece in two. No regrets. The abandoned piece is currently put away and may be re-visited at a later date. End of, moving on....

One of the advantages of working on the now half size piece is that I can manage it on my smaller printing table in the studio. It is warmer in my studio than in the garage where I have my larger printing table. What with our mid-winter weather it is very cold in there and not at all pleasant.

The retained piece is coming along nicely, looking good and is nearing completion. Here are a couple of details:

Major Shift

A major shift with my latest piece is about to happen. I did some further work on it over the weekend with very pleasing outcomes. So pleasing in fact that I am now keen to reject the top portion and proceed only with the lower. This seems to stand alone very nicely and with some more applications it should be a great outcome.

I frequently make such major shifts as this. It does pay not to be too precious about one's work. I could be upset about the time, effort and materials I have used in producing the portion I am about to reject, but prefer to see it as all part of working this piece. In other words, if I hadn't done what I have already done, I may not have achieved what I now have. Does that make sense!?

This shift came as a result of painting some figures on to my large screen with dye and water, as part of my original design. Once dry, I screened this on to the fabric with sodium alginate (manutex) and soda ash. Everything transferred beautifully....

Painted screen in place on the fabric which, at this point is covered with plastic to prevent any surplus dye spreading through. I also have paper templates for guidance under the screen.

Screen after printing, nothing much remains.