The screen print workshop was the first induction I had, as part of a group, at the university. As I studied a foundation diploma last year and chose printmaking as my pathway, I was already familiar with the idea of printmaking and how it works. It was fun to be able to get back into screen printing after a long summer of not doing so. 

We were able to choose from ready made stencils and as a pair we could get started on printing, once everything had been explained. We chose an image of the shopping centre in Elephant and Castle. The image was separated into two screens, which was interesting to be able to layer and distort in different ways. We experimented with different colours, but unfortunately as this was only an induction, we didn’t have very much time. 

For me, the most exciting thing to learn about was how to prepare the screen itself. Although I was told how to do so on my previous course, the technicians would prepare them for us. We were instructed on how to clean the screen which the previous person would have used, degrease the screen, coat it with emulsion, expose it to my stencil and let it develop. We were given a booklet of instructions at the start of the workshop, which we were able to use to make notes on throughout the process. This will be very useful for when I come back to develop my own ideas.