Creating Screen Printing Stencils

My health has not improved to the point I had hoped it would this summer so things have been progressing slowly in the studio and I have been terrible at blogging. I dream about and long to create these big awesome projects but it seems that "The Spirit is willing but the body is weak". I do still hold out hope for improvement and I am working on my meditation practice as a means to manage pain.

I have been able to spend some time in the studio and I have completed a couple of big custom orders created some art cloth to have sewn into handbags and now I am finally getting around to playing with screen printing again which is what I have been itching to do since early spring!

Yesterday I transferred some of my sketches onto interfacing so I can make stencils and I got the first layer of paint on them. I asked Don if he had any leftover latex paint and he found a can of bright orange semi-gloss in the basement which perfectly suited my needs. Don also built me some new stretchers and I bought some window sheering so that I could stretch some new screens. I woke up excited to dig back into my project but my pain level is quite high today so I am not sure if I will be able to get much done. Below are some photos of the stencils with the first of three layers of paint on them. The paint will act as a resist and the thickened dye will print through the white areas.