Breakdown Printing Course

The Lancelin TAFE students on my printing course are doing really well. They have made a screen from a wooden picture frame and covered with nylon curtain netting. This inexpensive screen will give some good results on fabric. The technique that we are using is called ‘Deconstructive or Breakdown Screen Printing’. Artists Kerr Grabowski and Jane Dunnewold have been teaching this method for a few years now.  I learnt with Jane Dunnewold from Art Cloth Studio in San Antonio, Texas, US.
 Linda Stokes a well known textile artist from Perth explains the technique “ Sometimes called breakdown printing, it uses thickened Procion dyes which can be painted, dripped, applied with a syringe onto the silkscreen or squeegeed over the screen with textured items underneath the mesh. The dye is then left to dry on the silkscreen. To print with the prepared screen, clear alginate print paste or a contrasting coloured thickened dye is used. It usually requires several pulls with the squeegee to start breaking down the dried dye in the screen. As it breaks down you get wonderful organic marks which change with each print as the dried dye breaks down further. You can continue printing until almost none of the dried dye is left on the screen. “