Textile Screen with Embellishment Winter School

Leicester Print Workshop is delighted to present our three day Winter Printmaking Schools in early 2023.

Taking place over the last weekend in January, these three day immersions will give participants a chance to dedicate time to their printmaking practice. With a choice of Collagraph, (with Charles Shearer), Japanese Book Structures (with Lucy May Schofield) and Textile Screen (with Alex Palmer), participants will enjoy the opportunity to experiment, play, explore and focus on their chosen technique.

These courses build on the successes of our popular weeklong Summer Schools, and present a new opportunity for artistic development, inspiration and growth over Winter.

An amazing opportunity to work with a range of techniques on fabric. You will learn how to mix disperse dyes to create a bespoke colour palette for your designs, how to collage, create stencils and use found objects to create a variety of fabric 'grounds' to embellish. You will learn how to make a 2-layer design, expose your design onto screen then how to press your disperse dye designs onto polyester fabric. In addition, you will learn how to print with flock, foil and puff binders using a screen and squeegee. This is a fulfilling and rewarding three day workshop full of surface embellishment, screen technique and focusing on layered and textural designs. 

You will learn the following techniques:

• Disperse dyes
• Screen printing
• Foil/flock and puff
• Colour mixing
• Colour palettes
• Repeat design
• Layering
• Printing textures

 Day One:

• Introduction to textile screen printing. Finding inspiration from artwork/designers, participants will create a variety of drawings to be exposed onto screen to develop understanding the of layering of imagery. Experimentation with colour, creating bespoke palettes to create cohesive and contrasting palettes, you will learn how to print onto fabric after processing your sample screen.
• You will also explore fabric embellishment techniques (foiling, flocking and puff binder) to enhance your designs.

Day Two:

• The morning will be spent exploring the many ways that disperse dyes can be used to apply colour to synthetic fabrics. You will collage, paint, and layer the disperse dyes to create brightly coloured backgrounds to screen print onto.
• In the afternoon, you will design and draw new larger designs to expose onto screen. These can have an element of repeat or a placement design. You will coat and expose large screens with the new design using elements learnt from day one.

Day Three:

• The final day will be printing your final design using a combination of techniques learnt from the previous days.
• You will leave the course with a variety of small samples and 2 larger final pieces.

 What to bring:

4 high contrast A5 images. These can be hand drawn or downloaded, as long as they have strong black and white areas. These images will become part of your design so it may help if they all work together, to create a cohesive design.

• A colour palette that inspires you. This could be a picture from a magazine, photograph or anything that inspires you!

About the Tutor

Alex Palmer graduated from Loughborough University in 2010 with a 2:1 BA Honours in Printed Textiles Design. Currently working at De Montfort University in the printed and dyeing textiles department, Alex works closely with students introducing a variety of printing/dyeing techniques to enable the students to further develop their work.

Alex also produces dyed/printed textiles outside of her usual work to keep her inspired and on trend with what is happening in the textiles industry. 

Leicester Print Workshop 

Leicester Print Workshop is the regional development centre for printmaking. Established by artists in 1986, we are a registered charity, supported by Arts Council England. Our RIBA award-winning building is situated in Leicester City Centre's Cultural Quarter and is home to a large, well equipped open access Printmaking Studio.

We have over 30 years’ experience of teaching people printmaking. Our programme offers the largest number and broadest range of printmaking courses in the region, with courses suitable for beginners as well as experienced printmakers, delivered by practicing artists and nationally renowned tutors. Participants learn in small and friendly groups in our purpose-designed studio.