Sunday, July 15, 2012

Another Year of Clovis

Clovis is six years old today.  How time flies.  I remember when he first arrived and was this tiny.


Now, he's six.  I have been planning to make Clovis t-shirts for a while now, but it seems fitting that the plan was finally realized on the eve of his birthday.  Here is a little bit about the process of screen printing the t-shirts.  I was led into the world of printmaking by a great teacher and friend, Caitlin.  We worked at AS220's print shop, the organization that was featured in a travel article about Providence in today's New York Times!

First, I started with the design.  This was an iterative process over many weeks.  Once the design was complete, I printed it onto acetate sheets.  At the print shop, the acetate templates were photo-exposed onto an emulsion that had been spread across a screen and dried.


The light-exposed emulsion hardens and the areas where the black template prevents light exposure remains soft and gets washed away, creating a sort of stencil.


Each shirt is placed on the table according to guide marks, the screen is folded down and the ink is hand-pressed through the screen using a squeegee.  Each impression is unique.  Learning the right pressure and angle for ink delivery is all a part of the art.


The shirts are then dried on racks.



Prior to printing the shirts, we did a number of test prints on various colored paper.  I love these, too!




And here is the final product, some beautiful Clovis prints and t-shirts, just in time for his birthday!





4 comments:

  1. Happy Happy Happy Birthday sweet little Clovis. We love ya like crazy...Suzi, Henry, Buddy & Lou Lou

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Birthday, Clovis! Your t-shirts are awesome!!

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  3. These t-shirts are great! Happy birthday to Clovis!

    ReplyDelete