Rainbow Coloured Flower Tote

Had lots of fun screen printing this rainbow coloured tote bag over the Easter bank holiday weekend. Quickly sketched the A4 flower design, hand cut simple stencils and then screen printed each layer of colour onto squares of fabric and finally a tote... once I knew there wouldn't be any mistakes! Really enjoyed working with lovely colourful textile inks and fabric, it makes a nice change from printing on paper. 

Getting ready for my Spring Tote Bag Printing workshop at Winterbourne House on Tuesday the 14th of May. Hoping to screen print a few more colourful examples ready for the workshop. During the day participants will be creating their own designs, hand cutting stencils, screen printing squares of fabric and totes, just like I did! We'll also be using the same professional quality materials and equipment as I used for my flower tote. 

There are still a few places available for the workshop so if you would like to learn to screen print or you want to print your own totes then don't miss this chance! Click on the link below for more details and booking. 

https://www.winterbourne.org.uk/whats-on/spring-tote-bag-printing/

 

Spring Tote Bag Printing at Winterbourne House & Garden

 

My next screen print workshop in Birmingham will be 'Spring Tote Bag Printing' at Winterbourne House & Garden on Tuesday the 14th of May. In this workshop participants will draw their own design inspired by different seasons, plants, flowers or a theme of their choice. They will then carefully hand cut stencils of their design using a scalpel. Next participants will use their stencil & bright coloured textile ink to screen print their design onto squares of fabric & tote bags. There will also be time to add a second colour to designs. 

It's not often I get the opportunity to run this workshop as it is expensive for me to buy the fabric & tote bags. We will be using professional quality fabric printing screens, squeegees & lovely colourful inks. Participants will each have some squares of plain fabric & at least two plain totes to print onto which they can take home at the end of the day. There will also be hand outs for participants with step by step by step instructions, a list of materials & suppliers. All for £65 which is excellent value. So if you are interested in learning to screen print or would like to print your own tote bags please don't miss this chance! Booking is via Winterbourne's website https://www.winterbourne.org.uk/whats-on/spring-tote-bag-printing/

Lucky Screen Print

A whole box of 'Lucky' cat prints arrived at the end of July but I've not been able to share them until now! The cats were screen printed in two colours by Printed by Us in Sheffield, then signed by me in Birmingham. They've arrived back in Sheffield and are available online from Printed by Us. The original version of Lucky was screen printed in black and green, the last few of these prints are also available. 

https://www.printedbyus.org/collections/art-prints/products/lucky-a3-print-karoline-rerrie  

Lucky the cat is a design I created a few years ago for Printed by Us. They're a social enterprise which works with homeless and vulnerable people to teach them how to screen print. The prints and products they create are sold online and from their shop in Sheffield. All profits from selling the products are reinvested in the project.

 

Summer Screen Printing Workshops in Birmingham

For anyone interested in learning to screen print I have a few different workshops coming up in Birmingham over summer and will be listing more details on my blog. The first one is my regular 'Introduction to Screen Printing on Paper' which will be on Saturday the 24th of June and also repeated on Saturday the 2nd of September.

 

In this hands on workshop participants will be learn how to make a photo stencil and screen print an image, illustration or design of their own. First they will coat a silk screen with light sensitive photo emulsion, then they will expose their A4 black and white image onto the screen and wash it out to create a photo stencil. Next participants will learn how to set up to screen print including how to register two different layers of colour. They will use a vacuum screen bed and print using colourful water based inks, a squeegee and a silk screen. By the end of the workshop participants will have hand pulled a series of at least ten screen prints on paper.

This workshop also includes details of materials and equipment suitable for screen printing on paper and it is accompanied by a comprehensive hand out with step by step instructions and a list of materials, equipment and suppliers. Basically it covers almost everything I have learnt over the last ten years! 

We will be working with existing images so participants will need a black and white image of their own which is suitable for screen printing. Some basic guidance for images can be given. All other materials and equipment will be provided during the workshop. The price of the workshop is £80 per person and places are very limited so please get in touch if you are interested. For more information and to book a place please email Karoline karoline.rerrie@yahoo.com

Rainbows for Cambridge Contemporary Crafts

 

Earlier this year I was invited to take part in the Pride celebrations at Cambridge Contemporary Crafts. It's a great opportunity to have some of my rainbow coloured screen prints on display so this month I've been working on new prints especially for the gallery. The first of these is some rainbow coloured hearts which have taken me a while to perfect. It usually takes me several attempts to work out the design and colours of prints made using hand cut stencils. But I don't mind because the printing process is so much fun and so are the results! 

First I drew the design, then hand cut the stencils for each of the three different layers and lastly I screen printed the overlapping layers of colour to create the prints. After trying darker, then lighter shades of colour I also tried printing the three different layers of colour in different orders. After a lot of deliberation I decided on lighter shades and yellow for the background. I finished an edition of twenty Rainbow Hearts on A4 white Fabriano Unica paper. Hopefully these will be on display at Cambridge Contemporary Crafts during June. https://www.cambridgecrafts.co.uk/

Screen prints for Ukraine

 

This is my limited edition A4 screen print ‘Olena’ and she is one of my favourite prints from last year. Olena is inspired by traditional Ukrainian folk dress, vinok flower wreaths and the courage of ordinary Ukrainian women. She is screen printed in the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag. But I also printed a version called 'Anastasia' in yellow and red. Some of the shops I work with helped me sell my 'Olena' screen prints and all proceeds went to charities helping Ukrainians affected by the war. I still have some prints left and they are £28 each. If you are interested in buying one you can email me at karoline.rerrie@yahoo.com and I will send you more details.

Olena is a three colour screen print and here are photographs showing each layer as it is screen printed. I started with the yellow background before carefully adding the details in blue.

Lastly I added yellow petals to the flowers around Olena's head.They were a slightly darker shade of yellow from the background.

Tutton & Young's Open Exhibition

It was a lovely surprise to find out my new screen prints 'Sunflower' and 'Peace' have been selected for the Tutton & Young Open Exhibition at Atelier Beside the Sea in Brighton. Both prints are entirely made by hand using simple hand cut stencils and overlapping layers of colour. It's a technique I've been working hard to perfect over the last few months. So I am especially pleased that these prints are going to be part of an exhibition featuring work by 130 different artists!

The open exhibition takes place at Tutton & Young's new shop and gallery space, Atelier Beside the Sea which is on Brighton Seafront. The private view is on Thursday the 14th of July from 6-8pm and the exhibition runs until the 3rd of September. But don’t worry if you aren’t able to go to Brighton… because all the work will be available to view online! https://atelierbrighton.co.uk/pages/atelier-open