Author: handprinted

This week we are introducing you to the beautiful work of Jenny McCabe. Learn her inspiration, working methods and motivation here:

Hi my name is Jenny and I live in Lancaster with my 2 children and husband. I have been an artist all my life – I started a degree in fine art in 1999
whilst my first child was only 2! Whilst at uni I took on artist in residence posts and delivered creative workshops around the northwest – they do
say if you need something doing give it to a busy woman! I’m telling you this to illustrate how my art practice has always been busy and varied and
I always have to find ways of sharing it with people – a passion of mine is collaborating and teaching.

I spend a long time working with digital art and film making but in 2006 I needed a change and decided I wanted to get back to making things – hands on
getting messy making! This led me to screen printing as I wanted to work with my drawings and be able to layer and repeat and work with fabric. It
has developed since then into my collages paper works but still screen printing gives me the freedom to layer my drawings and create unique artworks.
I still can’t get away from sharing and teaching and continue to develop community arts projects getting the general public to come and print with
me to make large scale works and of course I wrote 2 books sharing some simple printing ideas for making hand printed fabric items.

Describe your process.

My process starts with and idea and then lots and lots of drawing – some screwed up and thrown away never to be seen – some worked on over and over until
right. I love to draw birds and animals and look for dynamic poses and movement which I try to capture in my messy ink lines. When developing a project
to work with the public I keep it simple as the magic of screen printing is in the reveal! Lifting up the screen and seeing a perfect print never gets
old and the smile on peoples’ faces when they pull their first print is very addictive for me!

How and where did you learn to screen print?

I did do a tiny bit of screen printing on my foundation art course at Bourneville art college in Birmingham in 1993!!! So I understood the basics but I
am self taught apart from that – trial and error – tears and tantrums and now many years of practice – Plus I don’t think I would ever say I can screen
print. I’m a bodger – I can get a print out of a screen but I don’t really know what I’m doing!

Why screen printing?

I wanted to be able to put my drawings onto fabric and paper collages and repeat and layer images – screen printing seemed the most flexible for my needs.

Where do you work?

For years I had a perfectly adequate studio in my garage (very cosy garage with heating and insulation! ) but I recently moved in to a shared studio space
in the centre of Lancaster – my space is a similar size to my garage but its so great to be with other creative people and to have to leave the house
to go to work! It’s making me work harder and have a more defined shape to my day – I still do the odd night working in studio till midnight but it’s
more difficult to arrange that which was the idea – family first!

Describe a typical day in your studio.

I get into work straight after school run (my youngest is still at primary school). I turn on laptop while the kettle boils – I do a bit of half arsed
yoga if my back hurts! Then I make a list for the day and try to tackle it! My days are short as I do the school pick up so I usually cram all my making
and printing into the morning and leave admin till afternoon or once I’m home – I have plenty of galleries stocking my work so there is always a deadline
for a show or re stock or a fair to be making for. Plus I’m developing another large scale public engagement project so much writing and fundraising
to do – all worth it in the end!

How long have you been printmaking? 

I’ve been printmaking since 2006ish!

What inspires you?

Nature – British birds are just amazing – from their behavior to the incredible colours and all right on our door step. Collaborating and sharing art with
people is a vital part of my practice and makes my soul feel good!

What is your favourite printmaking product?

I am not brand loyal and tend to go with the cheapest and make things work in a very LO-FI way. Couldn’t be without a good sharp squeegee though – makes
all the difference in pulling a good print.

What have you made that you are most proud of?

Well obviously my children are my greatest creation and the thing I am most proud of and always will be but if I think about my art that’s a very hard
question – I really love my community work – it’s a joy to help someone else create – a project I did last year and intend to develop further was called
Flocking – screen printing with members of the public in an empty high street shop to create huge fabric banners of flying birds – this year I intend
to revisit the project and make it even bigger.

Where can we see your work? Where do you sell?

My work is stocked in a few gallery shops across the UK and online.

My biggest supporter locally is Arteria – a fab gallery shop in Lancaster. Artfinder is working well for me and Folksy has always been a great platform.

What will we be seeing from you next?

Well – big things – literally!– I’m developing my Flocking project further and intend to work with hundreds of members of the public and schools to print
thousands of birds to fill the gallery room at the Storey Building in Lancaster.

Do you have any advice for other printmakers and creatives?

Just do! The only way to learn is do it and make mistakes and try again. The only way to get your work seen is to just make the work and get it out there,
be kind and generous to other makers and your audience because that’s the right way – life is not a race or a competition, it’s a journey and we all
end up at the same destination so enjoy the ride because it should be fun and share the ride because that’s what it’s all about!

See and hear more from Jenny on her website, facebook or twitter.

If you’re in need of some motivation to get you through the cold months then this Meet the Maker is for you. We met Sophia and Matt in their beautiful
Brighton shop and fell in love with their products and inspirational story:

Sophia and Matt

We met a college when we were 16 and became a couple 2 years later, we’ve been together for 17 years. We studied art together for 3 years and then Sophia
went on to specialise in fashion design and I went on to study graphic design for a further 4 years each. In 2005 we formed a small design company
and created a simple set of products (a makeup bag, some toiletry bags and a handbag). We cut them on the floor at Sophia’s parents house and sewed
them using Sophia’s old industrial Singer Sewing machine. We took the finished products to Greenwich Market on a Friday and sold everything we made,
so we made some more. We ended up doing that all week every week for 5 years and it slowly turned into a business. Trading in the freezing cold and
hand making 1,000s of products was very tough but it was also rewarding, we sold our products all over Europe and Japan. We remained low profile but
had a dedicated following of customers and they helped form the foundation of our company. In 2010 we had grown to the point where we could open a
shop in Greenwich and leave the markets behind. We started outsourcing the cutting and making to a small family run factory in London so we could spend
more time on design and running the company. The company continued to grow and in 2015 we opened our second shop in Brighton on Bond Street 10 years
after our first day on the market.

Myself and Sophia design the products, the prints and all the hardware you see on the products. We also write all of the software that runs our company
(Website, POS software in our shops etc) and do our own photography. We pretty much have a hand in every aspect of our company. We have 3 incredible
staff back in London at our Greenwich store that support us and take care of everything else.

Sophia & Matt Brighton, 42 Bond street

 Describe your design process

A new product or print usually comes about as the result of 100s of casual conversations between myself & Sophia spread over weeks or months, and we’ll
make it happen when the time is right (usually if there’s a demand or finances will allow). We’re always talking about what we like and don’t like
when it comes to design as part of every day conversation and so we’re pretty much always in tune with what each other are thinking.

Because we work so closely with the retail side of the business (we often work in either of the shops) we meet a lot of our customers and we listen to
what they tell us, quite often they have no idea we’re the people behind the company and those customers talk openly about what they like and don’t
like. Over time you start developing a picture of what there’s a demand for.

The actual execution happens rapidly. Sophia might say one day “lots of people have been asking about x” and I’d say “yeah I’ve heard that too, it be cool
if we did it like this…” One of us would create a crude sketch on a piece of receipt paper or whatever is kicking around and that would be it.
Sophia would then create a paper pattern for the product and sample it at our flat in Brighton. She’d cut and sew it and show it to me when it’s done
and I’d either say “cool, you’ve nailed it” or “we need to work on this bit”. We’d iterate over that process a few times until it’s done which can
take anywhere between a few hours or a few weeks depending on the complexity of the product. Once finished Sophia would draw up a production specification
and work with our factory to produce a production sample.

When it comes to designing a print, that happens very randomly. Ultimately we’d get to a point where we know we want to make a Wild Floral (for example)
and I’d usually start hacking stuff together randomly based on what we’d been talking about for the last few weeks or months. When it comes to our
florals I like to work with India Ink on cheap printer paper. I let it dry and then I scan it and convert it into vectors and work with it in Adobe
Illustrator. Sophia works with graphic pens and I scan that stuff too. The final execution happens in Illustrator. When I’ve finished the graphic work
I hand it back to Sophia who works on the colour palette.

We then digital print onto high quality ink jet canvas to get the colour right, it’s the quickest and easiest way to print a version in multiple colour
variants to get the relationship between the colours right. We send that to the factory to colour match and screen print. We don’t bother with pantone
references because in our experience factories tend to forgo the pantone guide and work from their imaginations, so instead we send them the ink jet
print and tell them “if it doesn’t look identical to this don’t send us a sample”. It’s a very accurate way of doing things and saves a lot of back
and forth.

Matt working on a sketch for our Wild Floral Print

Sophia working on a sketch for our Wild Floral print

Featured above, our Wild Floral print. This is a huge print. When we started to talk about creating a Wild Floral we knew we wanted to do something unusual and push our limits. We emailed our factory and asked them for the absolute maximum size screen they could produce. They got back to us with the measurements and we began creating our largest and most complicated repeating print to date.

We had fun with this print and hid lots of little messages and illustrations around the print including a little bee flying amongst giant pollen with a 13 on his rear, and little sign post with Sophia Loves Matt on it.

All of the prints we design are oversized and are designed to be cut up randomly. No two products are ever exactly identical. You can see how the colour
and texture changes from the original digital artwork when its screen printed and turned into the final product, we like the slight inconsistencies
you get from screen printing that you don’t get from digital printing.

Wild Floral final panel

Above: An original sketch by Sophia that formed part of the wild floral print above (see the big green sections) and later made appearances in our Dandelion and Riperton prints

An early version of what later became Spot Deconstruct. Sophia was at work in our Greenwich store and I stayed at home to work on creating a new print. I was working my way though a “Deadliest Catch” marathon and a bottle of wine whilst I was playing around cutting up circles. Sophia came home, looked at it and said “there’s definitely something here” so I carried on working on it. That’s pretty much our process.

(2012) Spot Deconstruct final panel

Our Mainline makeup bag, £25 in Spot Deconstruct

Did you used to print your own products? You mentioned that most of your products are screen printed in the UK, why did you choose screen over digital?

We did screen print, but in small batches and only as part of the creative process. We were not in a position to be able to do on a larger commercial
scale because it was too expensive to do here in the UK.

Screen printing for us is still a critical part of the process even though it happens at the factory. Our work goes from paper and ink to digital and
back again and through that digital process you lose something. Especially when you’re working with vectors in Illustrator. It can feel soulless.
Screen printing breathes life back into the artwork, the work becomes analogue again. We also like the discipline screen printing introduces which
shapes our work. You can have as many colours as you like when you print digital but when you screen print commercially you’re pretty much limited
to 8 or 9 colours and it can be very difficult to create colourful, well balanced artwork with such a limited colour palette.

Having those limitations can leave its mark on your artwork and that’s particularly evident in our Spot Deconstruct print (2012) where we ended up
creating pin striped sections to create lighter shades of colours. Without that restriction it would have been something completely different.

Describe a typical day.

Our son Oskari is nearly 2 and he’s up early, so we get up, grab a huge cup of black coffee for me, a tea for Sophia and milk for Oskar and we sit
in bed and watch something on my laptop whilst we wake up and drink our drinks. Oskar heads off early to work in the front room with Mr. Koala
and his bricks. We stay in bed for another half hour and chat about the day ahead. I like to write software first thing in the morning when my
head is clear and Sophia likes to read industry / design news.

I then head off to our Brighton store where I work at the shop, I reply to emails, work on prints, photography and write code. Sophia works from our
flat where she can use her industrial sewing machine and develop new products styles. We swap at the weekends.

Where Sophia works at home. In the picture above we’re working on a thermal bottle holder on miserable January morning.

We work through until about 7pm and then stop for the evening. But we never really stop. Our work life and home life are kind of blurred. We don’t
see what we do as work, it’s just what we do each day.

How long have you designing and making products?

Coming up to 11 years now.

What inspires you?

The pursuit of being good at what we do and refining our craft. Each new print and product is an opportunity to create something new, to surprise ourselves
and to do it better than last time. That drives us to keep doing what we do.

What have you made that you are most proud of?

Honestly that’s hard to answer. We’re extremely critical of our work, and like many designers, when you see the final product all you can see are the
flaws or those things you wished you had done differently. We worked on our Wild Floral for months and it is has been one of our best sellers for
3 years, we should of been proud of it when it was finished but when we received the final products two of the colours were off slightly and we
couldn’t bare to look at those products for months, it really bothered us.

Overall though though I’d have to say that it’s our mainline collection of products. Those are the products that are designed and made with no expense
spared. No deadlines. They’re ready when we’re happy with the final design. Our mainline handbag and mini box bag are great examples and really
are beautifully made.

Above: Our mainline handbag (£124) and Mini Clutch Bag (£29)

Where can we see your work? Where do you sell?

We have a store in London (28 Greenwich Church Street, London SE10 9BJ) and a store in Brighton (42 Bond Street, Brighton BN1 1RD). We also sell online
at www.sophiaandmatt.co.uk

What will we be seeing from Sophia and Matt next?

We’ve been talking about homeware on and off for years. For the last year we’ve been working on a collection of homeware products and wallpapers.

Do you have any advice for other printmakers, designers and creatives?

Push yourself to take risks and work outside your comfort zone. Try and create work that you’d be proud to put your name to. Do those two things and
you can guarantee yourself a life fraught with successes, failures, anxiety and a beautiful portfolio at the end of it all : )

Safeprint is a thin piece of polystyrene block that is a quick and easy way of making a relief print. You don’t need lino tools to carve it, just a pencil! For
this reason, it’s brilliant to use with children and in schools. If you haven’t tried it before, give it a go – it’s so quick!

Start by tracing your image or drawing. We used this photograph of a bear. You’ll need to use a very soft pencil or graphite stick: a 4B, 6B or 9B will
be perfect.

Flip over your drawing and place it face down on your piece of Safeprint. Use a pencil on its side to rub the tracing paper, transferring the image to
the Safeprint block. Make sure to use only the side of the pencil and press softly so not to make any dents in the Safeprint – these could show in
your prints.

You should have a faint drawing on your Safeprint. You can use this as a guideline for your block.

You’ll need two pencils for carving your block, the first of which is a hard, sharp pencil – sharpen an HB (or H, 2H etc) to within an inch of its life.
You want it to be sharp and scratchy for breaking the surface of the Safeprint without tearing or dragging.

The second pencil you will need is a blunt one – the kind that’s too blunt to draw with and would get you into trouble at school. You want a nicely rounded
end to press into the block and squash it.

This part works just like lino printing: you’re taking away the areas that you want to be left unprinted. This bear is going to be printed in a dark colour
onto a light background. This means that I am taking away the parts that I want to remain the background colour after it’s printed.

Use your blunt pencil to push down any large areas that you don’t want to print, just like carving away a piece of lino. The blunt, rounded end will squash
the polystyrene down so that it wont pick up any ink.

Use your sharp pencil to scratch in any lines and details. The sharp point will break through the surface of the polystyrene without tearing it. For thicker
lines, break through the surface first with a sharp pencil and then go over them with the blunt pencil to widen the lines.

Continue to draw all over your block with the sharp and blunt pencils, pushing or scratching away areas that you don’t want to print.

If your design is a shape like this one, use a scalpel to cut out your block. This is the only part that isn’t suitable for children, especially as the
knife needs to be really sharp so that it slices through the block rather than tearing it.

When you have cut out your block you are ready to ink it up. Mix up a colour of your choice on an inking tray or slab. For printing onto paper, we are
using Brian Clegg Premium Block Printing Inks.
These are perfect for using with Safeprint, come in a great variety of colours, are water-based and brilliant for using with children.

Roll out an area of your ink onto your tray or slab. You don’t want the ink to be squelchy. You want an even, suede-like texture that makes a zzz sound
with your roller. 

Ink up your roller in this patch of ink and gently roll it onto your block. Make sure you cover all the areas of the block but try not to go over it too
many times as the roller could end up lifting off the ink instead of putting it on.

Place your block face down on the paper. Use a clean roller to roll all over the back of the block. You may need to hold it still with your free hand.

Peel off your block to reveal your print!

To print onto fabric, remove the excess paper ink off your block by pressing it onto some scrap paper a few times. For printing onto fabric we are using

Speedball Block Printing Inks for Fabric which are water-based and easy to use.

Roll out the ink and print using exactly the same method onto your fabric!

For this project you will need:

• Safeprint
  Polystyrene
• Tracing paper
• Soft pencil or graphite stick
• Sharp, hard pencil
• Blunt pencil
• Scalpel and cutting board
• Inking tray or glass slab
• Two rollers
• Brian Clegg Block Printing Inks for printing onto paper
• Speedball Block Printing Inks for Fabric
• Paper to print on
• Fabric to print on such as a Tote Bag or Apron

This is an easy method for two colour block printing on fabric that doesn’t require a computer at all so grab your pencil case and have a go:

Draw around your block onto a piece of paper.

Draw part of your design in the centre of your template.

Cut out your template and cut it into 4 equal pieces. Number your pieces 1 – 4 as seen below:

Switch pieces 1 and 2 with 3 and 4 so that the top half is swapped with the bottom. Your design should look like this:

Now switch 1 and 3 with 4 and 2 so that the left side is swapped with the right side. Your design should look like this: (check your numbers to make sure  the pieces are in the right order)

Hold (or tape on the back) your pieces together. Draw the rest of your design over the middle to fill the space.

Put your pieces back in their original order – 1,2,3,4. Tape your pieces together.

Place a piece of red carbon paper on over your block. Place your drawing on top. Choose some of the elements of the design that you would like to be one  colour and trace around them.

 Repeat these steps onto your second block, tracing the areas to be printed in your second colour. Use a piece of blue carbon paper to make it easier. If you would like to layer your colours, trace some areas onto both blocks so that they will print in both colours.

Use a lino tool to remove the surface of the areas that you do not want to print. Use a deep V tool to go around the edges of your shapes and a shallow  U tool to clear the backgrounds.

Use a Versacraft Ink Pad to ink up the first block.

 You have applied enough ink when your block appears shiny.

 Place the block face down onto your fabric. Press all over the back with the flat of your hand. Remove the block, reapply the ink and place your next print  directly beside the last.

Continue to do this to cover the fabric.

Ink up the second block with the second Versacraft Ink Pad colour. Place the block face down over your first colour and press to print.

Continue inking up your second block and printing your second colour over the whole pattern. Iron your print for a few minutes to heat set the ink.

To have a go yourself you will need:

• Paper

• Black pen
• Scissors
• Carbon paper – blue and red
• Soft pencil
• MasterCut block
• Lino tools
• Versacraft fabric ink pads
• Fabric to print onto

• Iron

This week we’re staying local with Chichester based, surf obsessed Jonny Schofield telling us all about his exciting new venture: Gnarly Tree Clothing

I’m Jonny Schofield founder of Gnarly Tree Clothing. I source ethically and sustainably made clothing and screen print original designs on it. I’m passionate
about making responsible clothing more accessible and making beautiful products for those who love to be outdoors. Having studied French at university
starting an ethical clothing company just seemed like the next logical step…

Describe your making process

It all begins with an idea in my head then playing around with the design on a computer, creating 45 final versions of the design before deciding its complete
rubbish and starting again with a new one! I then embark on the torturous process of deciding on a handful of designs I like enough to put on my clothes.
When that’s done I pay visit to Handprinted where I expose my screens swapping designs in and out until the very last minute. The screens are then
ready to come home to the makeshift studio for printing.

How and where did you learn to design and print clothing?

I don’t really know where I learned to design. I started mucking around with some design software on my year abroad, I had a lot of spare time between
my 12 hours of teaching a week and have been doing it since. I’ve had no official training in it, but I love it, I guess I’ve always been easily offended
by poor design and I know what I like. I learned the basics of printing on an evening course in Leeds in my final year of uni but it wasn’t until I
came down to Handprinted that I had made anything half decent.

Why screen printing?

There’s something really satisfying about screen printing and I think for such a simple process you can make some great looking products. A big factor
for me is that I can use water based inks (Permaset and Permaset Supercover)
which are much better for the environment than horrible plastisol inks or vinyl.

Where do you work (ie where do you print your clothes)?

I currently work from home in Chichester using a homemade press, sofas for drying racks and all sorts of other impractical devices. Its far from ideal
but its certainly warmer than the cold store of a Val d’Isere chalet where I began printing. This month I’m looking to move to a shared studio space
for creative start-ups across the border in Hampshire.

Describe a typical day in your studio.

Any day starts with a surf check, surf takes priority over most things especially as good conditions are so few and far between at the Witterings. But
aside from that, there is no typical day. It depends on online orders and what’s coming up in terms of events. Selling from my reclaimed wooden cart
in Chichester high street in the lead up to Christmas was manic and meant long days of printing, some nights printing until 2am.

How long have you been printmaking?

Its been a year now, not long at all. I did very little following the course I took and only got back into it during my ski season last year. I’m still
doing a lot of learning and Handprinted are very patient with me!

What inspires you?

Everything? Is that too cliché? I see bits of design I like all around me and I try to put it in the context of the things I’m passionate about; the sea,
the mountains and generally having adventures out in nature.

What have you made that you are most proud of?

I’m pretty proud of how all the designs have looked on the clothing and how they’ve been received by my customers, but I know this is just the first line
and I can’t wait to start designing again and to raise the bar.

Where can we see your work? Where do you sell?

You can check out our online shop at gnarlytreeclothing.co.uk or at weekends in Chichester
town centre where I sell from my wooden cart ‘Bertha’ so come and say hello!

What will we be seeing from Gnarly Tree next?

An exciting new range for spring/summer which will be taken to festivals and events all across the UK. I’m working with some fantastic local artists and
designers to create some very good looking threads for the new season.

Do you have any advice for other printmakers, designers and creatives?

Advice… aside from always ask Shirley and Holly, maybe just go for it? Starting a business you’re passionate about is one of the most exciting things
you can do. Its seems like a huge step but there is never a perfect moment to start so yeah, just go for it. Whats the worst that can happen?

Here is a selection of work created in our studio throughout 2015. Have a look at our courses if you fancy joining us in 2016. Happy New Year!

 

 

Handprinted started in 2003. I (Shirley) was teaching printing and dyeing techniques in an Adult Ed College in South West London and to make a little extra
money I sold items I had printed and dyed at craft fairs. Alongside my more personal pieces I printed some simple items using customer’s
children’s hand and foot prints – the most popular items by far.

 Devore Scarf.

 One of the original Christmas cards from 2003.

So Handprinted was born. I built a clunky website – it was before the days of Etsy and Not on the High Street. I got a bit of publicity in magazines such
as glossy parenting magazine Junior.

I was teaching part time, looking after our three small kids and then printing into the early hours. I printed from a small room in our house without a
sink. I exposed screens using a lamp in a bucket and washed all my printing materials in the bathroom – trying not to drip ink
on the stair carpet! Printing with limited facilities myself has allowed me to understand the difficulties customers experience when they
are not working from a fully functioning studio.

 Discharge printed footprints cushion.

Handprinted’s naughty and nice T-shirts! 

Business was good and busy at Christmas when cards and cushions would be flying out the door, but slower the rest of the year. I was
buying printing and dyeing supplies for Handprinted and my students were beginning to buy bits and pieces from me. So the business evolved
from a site selling Handprinted items to supplies for artists and craftspeople. Our first online shop went live in 2005 – here it is! I’m
sure we must have made a loss selling the batik pot at that price!

So in the last ten years since www.handprinted.co.uk has been around quite a lot has changed. The
website has been through three redesigns since the one above – we are liking the new one a lot – we hope you do too. We have moved out of the spare
room into a storage unit and then into premises that customers could come and visit in 201. We expanded into larger premises in
2014 with the added benefit of having a studio so we can teach classes and local people can come and use the studio as their own workspace.
In 2012 Holly joined me part time whilst she was studying a Fine Art degree and then came full time when she graduated in 2014.

So what is next for Handprinted? There are more classes happening in the studio – click here to see.
We are always on the lookout for guest tutors to come and give classes and have Ian Phillips and Laura Boswell coming in 2016 but hope to be adding
some more names to that list. We are also out an about more and will be exhibiting at a few shows. The first show of the year will be The West
Sussex Quilters Guild Regional Day on March 5th in Chichester, but we will also be at Art in Action in Oxfordshire, Patchings Festival in Nottingham,
Quilts UK in Worcester and Thread at the Maltings in Surrey. Keep a eye out to see if we are coming near you it is always lovely to meet our customers.
If you are local Holly and I will also be exhibiting as part of Chichester’s Art Trail in May 2016.

When we are extra busy we can also pull in a couple of extra hands (paws) from our occasionally resident dog Fletcher!

 

 This is a very simple and easy Christmas project. Just whip out your screen, grab an old cardboard box and a squeegee and within half an hour you’ll have this handmade stunner for the top of your tree.

Start by drawing your star shape on a piece of leftover cardboard. Any size is fine, just make sure it’s even.

Draw the same star shape on a piece of plain paper. Draw your pattern onto the paper making sure that it will cover the surface of the star. This can be any pattern you want it to be! Cut out your shapes using a scalpel and a cutting mat.

Once you have cut out your stencil, place it on top of your cardboard, making sure the whole of the star is included.

Tape the edges of your 90T screen, leaving an opening that is slightly smaller than your paper. Place your screen on top of the cardboard and the stencil.

Spoon out a row of your favourite acrylic screen printing ink along the top of the screen. We chose Speedball’s gold. Pull your squeegee down the screen gently, holding the squeegee at a 45 degree angle. Remove the excess ink from the squeegee, bring it back to the top of the screen and pull down again, pressing hard this time. Your may need to use one hand to print and the other to hold the screen still.

Peel off your stencil and wash your screen. When your print has dried, use a straight edge and a scalpel to cut out your star.

On the front of your star, use the scalpel to score a straight line from the centre to each of the five points. Don’t press too hard or you’ll go through the other side! On the back, score from the centre to each of the inner corners of the star.

When you have scored five lines on each of the front and back, gently pinch each point so that the centre raises and the edges dip – like in the photo below.

When you have finished your star you can sellotape a tube of paper onto the back so that it can be placed on top of your tree, or make lots to place around the house!

To make your own star, you will need:

• Cardboard
• Pencil
• Metal ruler
• Scalpel
• Cutting mat
• 90T Screen
• Squeegee
• Acrylic screen printing ink
• Plain paper for making a stencil
• Tube of paper
• Sellotape

Modern Botanics has an aesthetic that we can’t get enough of here at Handprinted. Meet the maker behind the lovely prints: Mirta Tyrrell. Her story is
truly inspirational. 

I’m Mirta, I’m an illustrator, print-maker and maker and I live on the banks of Lake Como (Italy) in a tiny village. I’m nearly 40 years old and I changed
my life recently moving from a big city and starting over.

Describe your process.

I do quite a lot of sketching for my art prints. I’m mainly inspired by natural little things like wild flowers or shapes I find in nature. I walk a lot
and during those walks I pick up lots of things (stones, driftwood, flowers, leaves, seeds and more) and then I draw them as whole or partially once
I get to my studio. When I work with textiles instead I’m planning less and experimenting more. Most of my patterns on linen and cotton are a bit more
abstract.

How and where did you learn to print?

I created my little brand Modern Botanics a few years ago when I lost my job and I wanted to use the time at my hands in a good way. I started taking as
many courses I could in different printmaking techniques and illustration. I’ve discovered printmaking from one of my teachers in an illustration course
and fell in love. Especially with linocut and block printing.

Why printmaking?

I love I can reproduce something but at the same time each piece is unique. I love the fact that there are endless possibilities within it.

Where do you work?

I work mainly in my studio, it’s a room in my home. When I moved here last spring the studio was the first room I worked on. I need a space to keep all
my tools and where I could find myself at home. I’m really happy how it turned out, even if I could do with more space. When it’s warmer I sketch outside
sitting on the banks of the lake or on the beach.

Describe a typical day in your studio.

I don’t really have a typical day. It depends if I’m working on something new or filling orders, and what season is. I prefer to work on new stuff early
in the morning. In summer I work more in the evenings when is cooler. Something typical is folk music or a podcast in the background and a huge mug
of coffee on the desk. When I print fabric or I’m carving a new illustration I can spend ours in the studio without noticing the time going by. I often
forget to have lunch!

How long have you been printmaking?

I think it’s around 4 years now. I started with screen-printing before falling in love with block printing.

What inspires you?

The little things. The shapes, patterns and prints I see in nature. My work is very botanical based, but not all of it it’s immediately recognized as such.
I like to play with it and make things a bit more abstract and geometric sometimes. I’m also inspired by Japanese minimalist take on shapes, I like
clean lines and love using only a few colours.

What is your favourite printmaking product?

Linoleum without any doubts. I love it. I love sitting down for hours and carve it. I especially love the light grey version I found recently. It’s great
to draw on it and it carves beautifully. I also have a favorite tool, a small carving tool with the wooden handle made in Switzerland.

What have you made that you are most proud of?

Difficult question. Maybe my first block printed linen piece, an indigo blue scarf with black and copper pattern. I’m not sure, there are certain things
I get quite attached to, they have sentimental value because they take so long to be made.

Where can we see your work? Where do you sell?

I have an online shop and recently I’ve started to sell to independent shops (brick and mortars and online ones). I would love to sell in galleries.

What will we be seeing from Modern Botanics next?

I’m planning a full range of home textiles and a capsule of handmade block printed clothes for next summer. In the art print section of my work I’ve just
started working on bigger and more complex designs for my prints.

Do you have any advice for other printmakers, designers and creatives?

Find your voice. Work hard. Become part of a community and support other makers. Never stop learning and experimenting and have fun!

To find out more about Mirta visit Modern Botanics or Mirta’s shop, Instagram or Twitter.  

Earlier this week I went on a day trip to Cranfield Colours the manufacturers of the lovely Caligo Safe Wash Ink. They are working on a new product and had asked Ian Phillips along for his input and I asked if I could tag along. Ian is a relief printmaker whose work can be seen here.

Cranfield has been making inks for three generations. Michael Craine is the current MD and overseas the entire business – Cranfield also make commercial printing inks and Spectrum Artists paints. Angela Brown works alongside Michael in development of products. Angela is an ink chemist with the benefit of having an MA in printmaking so is passionate about the ink manufacture and understands the processes and demands put on any ink.

Caligo Safe Wash has been in production for 10 years. It is a ground breaking product. An oil based ink that is water washable, allowing studios to use beautiful, rich, oil based inks with the benefit being able to clean up using just soap and water.