I came across Mini Print in Seoul when I was here last time round. The founders, Sam and Albert are some of the most amazing people I know here and run a beautiful space in Seongsu. They regularly organise monthly screen printing workshops. I'd previous taken a short 1-day class where we experimented with some basic shapes and colours during a but had been itching to do the more intensive one for ages.
I signed up for it this month and the process was quite the experience.
First, we needed an image or a drawing. I would have usually gone with something hand drawn. But one thing led to another and somehow I ended up with this.
I don't usually do digital artwork but I really liked the idea of representing the 'modern Indian goddess'. For this particular composition, I knew that I had to use this image of my sister from when she went bald. I was pretty happy with the image but had no clue how to screen print it.
Albert jumped in and helped me separate the colours and prepare the file for printing. And off we went.
Step 1
Prepare the prints to expose onto the screens. We separated that image into four colours - blue, gold, black and pink.
Step 2
Expose the prints onto the screens. Here we used this gigantic contraption that Albert built himself. I was amazed.
Step 3
Spray the screens with water so that emulsion of the exposed part washes away.
(Picture from the last time because I was doing the washing this time round)
Step 4
Bring out the paints!!!
We had to 'flood' the screen before printing every time. More than anything else, this was my favourite part. Just look at how beautiful that paint is. We were flooding screens for about 6 hours and it never got old.
#Step 5
The first layer we printed was the blue. I wanted to stop at this point since it looked so satisfying already.
#Step 6
Then came the gold. The gold was thrilling and every pass was an absolute pleasure.
Step 7
The universal fixer-upper: black. The black paint itself was beautiful but this is the part that I messed up the most.
Step 8
At this point, we'd been printing forever and over the course of a day, I had gained a deep respect for the work that Sam, Albert and other printmakers do. It's an exhausting art form that requires skill, creativity, patience, concentration and stamina. That last pass of the perfect pink colour was well worth it.
I loved my Sunday screenprinting. It was one of the most satisfying experiences I've had. I'm thinking of making this a series - using more images of everyday women from around the world and reimagining the traditional Indian goddess.
