Silk screens and Japanese weaving

We may get around to the plans for January's meeting in March! Here is a re-posting of the materials.

"...will be a bit of an Asian affair - we'll be making our own silk screen and learning a Japanese weaving technique on the Kumihimo Loom.

We'll start off with our silk screen using PhotoEZ, a green, photo-sensitive, water-dissoluble plastic film with an embedded fine mesh. (You can buy it at Circuit Bridge but I have enough for everyone to do a demo.)

We'll expose the film to strong light which will change the film from a water dissoluble material to a water resistant one. Using a black & white print of choice, we will use it to block the light of our design areas, then soak the film in water, and the part of the film that isn't exposed to light will dissolve away, leaving only the mesh while the parts of the film exposed to light remain. Voila! our silk screen!

Any black & white image you can printout from a computer can be used for making your silk screened image! You can draw your own or you can scan in images from books. Shoot for an image no larger than 2x2 for our demo. I'll have some Gwen Gibson silk screens that will be fun to use to overlap for a neat effect.

Making a silk screen is very easy! Bring with you:

2 pieces of glass, approx. 3x5, 4x5 - I use glass from cheap picture frames
1 2x2 black & white image that you want to use to make a silk screen - I have some pictures you can choose from but if you want to do your own thing, bring it.
1 plastic container to soak your silk screen in as it develops


I'll have everything else.

Once we have our silk screen, we'll use it to paint a design on clay and then create a pendant. Here is where you need to make some decisions; what color for the clay pendant, what colors do you want to paint on your pendant - of course, your choice in the image for the silk screen will help you determine colors.

Now to use the silk screen - bring with you:
*Basic clay tools: tissue blade, pasta machine, tile, roller, cookie cutter shapes,etc.
*Clay to make a pendant - conditioned, your choice of color
*Acrylic paint - the best is Golden Paints (I have silver, red, and a gold - you're welcome to use them if they suit, if not Michael's has a great selection but you will not need much so don't spend a fortune here)
*An old credit/gift card to use as a squeegee or hey! a real squeegee!

We'll make our pendant and while it bakes - I'll have an oven - we'll learn to use the Japanese Kumiloom to create a cord which will complement the pendant you have just made. For the cord, you can bring yarn that will match your pendant - the Adornment yarns at Michaels in the scrap booking section are great to use for these woven cords but I would start with a basic, and simple yarn. I will have lots for you to choose from, but again, if you're into coordinating this project, you'll want to be sure you have the right colors to match your pendant. You'll need approximately 15 yards of yarn - two contrasting colors makes it easier to learn technique, in that case 7 1/2 of each color. For this project, you only need to bring any special yarn that you want to use. I talk about using "yarn" but Kumihimo cords can be made with silk threads, nylon cords, hemp, funky yarns, c-lon, almost anything. In keeping it simple, I suggest using basic yarn. The looms - I'll make some temporary looms and bobbins for you to try this out - if you like it, you'll want to buy one of the foam looms and the plastic bobbins. Check out this website What is Kumihimo? for more information.

Think I've covered it all but if you have questions, please let me know. I'm looking forward to having something I've designed that I can share with you guys! See you on the 20th!"