My studio-mate and good friend, Anna McKee, is a print maker and painter. She has a large and beautiful press in her studio and has offered to let me use it many times over the years. Since I’m in the midst of exploring new ways of printing on fabric, it seemed like a good time to take her up on her offer.

baby dresses after dyeing process

I’ve been working with absorbant materials for a while as a way of creating texture on breakdown screens. I then use those textured materials to print as well, creating both “positive” and “negative” imagery. Anna and her husband and studio-mate, Paul E. McKee, gave me some antique baby clothes from his family to use in the dye studio. I used those dresses to set up some breakdown screens last week (see previous blog post).

I usually take prints directly from the dyed fabrics by wrapping them in soda soaked fabric and letting them batch. I decided to try running them through the printing press to see how it  would be different. I got some interesting results. Overall, the prints were lighter in color but had more detail. This make sense. The color would be lighter because the fabric was in contact with the dye for less time: less dye = less color. The crisper detail makes sense because the rollers of the press apply so much more even pressure than I can with my hands or a brayer.

print taken from the dress with the press

detail of print taken from dress

Now I wonder, why did I wait so long to take advantage of this amazing tool? Anyway, the prints are lovely and I look forward to more experimentation.

(and I didn’t win the Audience Choice spot in the Art Walk Awards but thanks for all your votes!)

print from breakdown screen

detail of print from breakdown screen