On Tuesday night we had a class/workshop to kit up the Camp Quality project (the theme for our day at Camp is Hawai'ian Luau. We had so much fun!We had a large group and we cut stencils, kitted perle cotton and needles, silk screened and used freezer-paper stencils to add the designs to felt for the project (more here). The painters got very creative and did used wonderful combinations of paint and felt to make really great designs.
The online tutorial I did on homemade silk screening (here and here) and the comments on freezer paper stencils formed the basis for a short class before we got going. We learned some things...The silkscreen process is much quicker than stenciling.
You can be a bit more creative with paint when stenciling and multicolor designs are possible.
The silkscreen gets paint-logged and gets floppy, like it does when wet, and it stops working (you just get a blob of paint).
We took the floppy silkscreens and rinsed them off and set them aside to dry. I thought we were out of luck, but a clever member went and got her blow-drier and we were back in business! The drier quickly dried out the stencils and firmed them up again.
I came home with mixed feelings, like I usually do after a class. I was a bit cross (to say the least) at the beginning when I couldn't get everyone's attention. I need to have a plan for that and handle it more gracefully. Then I worried that I didn't encourage people to rotate more. The people painting were having such fun they didn't want to stop and several people didn't get a chance to try it. I knew some preferred it that way (acrylic paints do not come out of nice clothes), but I suspect others would have liked a chance. But mostly I was really happy that everyone seemed to have fun.
And, the point of the whole exercise, we got all of the needed images done and trimmed and all of the thread bags together so we're all ready for Camp Quality Illinois.
