Do I know anything about screen printing? No. Have I ever thought about making my own tote bag? Never. Did I let either of these things stop me when a lovely lady asked me if I wanted to make a personalised tote bag? Of course I didn’t.
Screen printing, it turns out, is a rather simple process. I don’t know the amount of effort/resources that went into making the screens (which were ready when we arrived) but the printing itself was quick and painless. We got to choose a pattern and/or a word for our tote bags. Among the words were ‘solstice’, ‘dusk’ and ‘twilight’, and among the patterns a large bird or a group of three smaller ones. We were then shown how to stick the pattern to the screen, place our bags underneath, and drag down a blade so that the paint would spread evenly over the space left by the pattern. The result was a clean, sharp red word and pattern printed over the bag. We wrote our names on the bags before laying them out to dry, but when it started drizzling we had to run outside and bring all the bags in!
In the end, we took them home before the paint had dried. We were very careful not to smear it, and after about an hour of hanging on a clothes line in the sun and wind, the bags were all dry and ready to use. They look amazing and very professional - so much so that we’re wondering if we should repeat the experience at home!
by Julie Primon
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