Photostencil (2) and fabric printing

The light box

My first photo stencil!

I have got the photostencil set up to work. It is not hi-tech, and fine detail might take some practice to achieve, but the system works and greatly extends what I can do. It gives more scope for development than spontaneous mark-making. Mind and hand are linked.

This has not happened overnight and has taken me many years to accept. It is still foreign to me. I am more in tune with the Japanese belief in "the beauty and significance of touch", in the freshness and simplicity of lines and textures which in fact bypass the mind and link the chi of the body and soul to the page!

But the conceptual way is simply a different route. And when making sizeable lengths of cloth, working with the screen is less wearying than having to make every mark by hand, often with uneven results. Painting on fabric in such a way means dye mixture has to be quite liquid. It does not hold the dye so evenly. For printing, a much thicker mixture is necessary, and, Halleluiyah, this means that flat areas of colour remain even and as planned.

Fabric usually has a structure which makes free painting unsatisfactory. The only exception is very smooth finely woven silk. Textiles are three-dimensional in their structure and their use.