Wallpaper design

I want to make this clear; I am not good at photoshop whatsoever and you must understand that for me, this was very hard to do. I know that it is not perfect, and that there are certain aspects of it that dont line up, but I only wanted you to get a general picture of what would happen if you repeated my design over and over, like a pattern, and I believe that this shows it well.

For the pillow design, this was an accidental miracle. For a while, I was uncertain as to what to do with it, since I know I wanted to put more than one design and i wanted to overlap it. Therefore, these were just a smaple again before I took the screen printing onto the real thing.
So instead of a normal singular colour, a hint of something else is more exciting and will go well with the foil.

The Sample Booklet, explained

This is the explanation for the sample booklet in which I have gained samples for both the pillowcase and the wallpaper designs.

The first three pages are dedicated to samples cut from different kinds of cloth for the pillowcase design. I wanted to research the colour spectrum as well, just to get a sense of what textures and colours can do when colliding with my image.

Page four is cut out pieces of wallpaper that I will be experimenting on. Some of them, especially the black and the pink and silver one, I can see has more of a textured feel which can either be a good or bad thing once the design is printed onto it.

With these samples, I have used the process of Screen Printing and Flock and Foil.

Page five is enlarged pieces of cloth that I have placed a practise design onto. Some of these cloth samples are from the first few pages, but in different colours. Apart from the middle cloth, which is simply coloured calico, the designs are smudged, some more than others. This is not because I did not position the work and stick it down so it will not move, as well as position the screen and have someone hold it whilst I squeegeed the paint/glue in place, this is because the cloth is not suitable for the type of exploration that I want to do to it. Three are explored by using screen-printing and paint; they did not come out well at all, even when I wiped the screen and did all the necessary preparation every time. The other two, however, were explored with foil, in which it was mildly better. The green cloth did leave more marks but it was a vast improvement. The best however, was the coloured calico, which was the chosen material for my pillowcase.

Page six was the first experiment for the official size of the design in which I chose to merge half of it in screen-printing and half in foil. The foil is the exact same colour as the green calico in which the paint was placed upon. I liked this idea if it wasn’t for the fact that the coloured calico was cut and placed so messily. Nevertheless, I wanted an insight of what it would look like together, and it is ok overall, if there were some changes to the concluded appearance. Also, in a sense, it does echo ones shadow because of the separation of this woman; there are two sides to everyone, one white, and one dark. The background, complete black, is a colour that I think will suit my message perfectly.

Page seven is the design repeated three times in different colours on the same green calico. From a light green, almost the same colour as the cloth, to a dark blue to a black shows a direct colourful contrast that reflects the nature of ones soul to the decline of self-destruction. I like this decline and the colours but perhaps not the colour green as a background, as it is too loud and does not distinguish the light that the person is trying to find.

Page eight is on purple calico where I experimented with another kind of foil called iridescent. It has this oily and subtly colourful aspect to it, which is much better than the green foil before. I chose this kind of foil because it emphasises the impurity of ones soul, that even though they seem good, they can have aspects of Jung’s shadow and self-destruction. I like the foil, but I am wary about the colour again. The first experiment did not come out too well, but this is because I did not wash out the screen properly. However, the second experimentation is much better, even though, again, it did not come out completely; this time, this was because the glue was not dry enough before I placed the foil down and placed it in the machine to heat. Although the design is not complete, the aspect of what I did differently from the first can be seen, there are areas in which the foil is not present, as in, I placed tiny pieces of tape un-top of the screen so that the glue will not get through and this is what happened. I can now, that the pieces of tape have to be bigger, as some of the glue did get through, but all in all, I like this aspect of a subtly broken design.

For the wallpaper, I decided to place my other image for this design; that way I can present this as a set in the style of Art Nouveau.

Page nine, begins the experimentation of wallpaper for my wallpaper design. On this page, I placed the textured wallpaper together. The first one is the black wallpaper which has a texture related to lined dots overlapping each other. I screened my design on here in white so I could see what happened to it; it was not good; the design came out extremely smudged where the colour would seep into the alignment of the texture. Some aspects of the design one can see, but I would do this as a final product, as it is too messy. The second textured wallpaper is the coloured one; the silver background gave a good resistance to smudging the design, but the flock-like texture of the pink flower design did not. I understand now, that doing the design in white was not a good idea, any other colour it would be in would be overruled by the extremity of the flowers, and the texture would smudge the design to near non-recognition, as it has done here.

Page ten, is another more subtly designed wallpaper in which I placed my screen printed design in white. The first time, presented on this page, is not a good example, as again, I did not wipe the excess of the paint from the printing side of the screen off. However, it gives an insight, and I believe that the colours suit each other.

Page eleven, the same wallpaper is used and the same colour but I wanted to experiment with the designs that I have in my sketchbook unto the actual product. I did a small example of the repeated design where the women are facing each other in lines across the wallpaper. Even though it is blurred in some areas, it gives a good example that my predicament is true; like I said in my sketch book, the design in general is not a good one; the fact that the woman has only one arm showing makes look as though she is merging with the other woman, which is not my intention, and places the design away from the point of my message.

The colour and the choice of wallpaper is excellent, but the choice of design is not.

Page twelve, the design is again in white but on striped wallpaper which is mainly blue. The first was a experiment and again, it is smudged in some places. I believe this was because the screen itself moved slightly.

However, below, the main design taken from my sketchbook, called overlap design, shows promise. I did one in white and one in blue just so I can see the difference, and perhaps because of Jung’s shadow is part of ones personality, and I wanted to personify this. However, all in all, the arm that has no hand looks as though it is merging within the other woman’s breast that could symbolise a lot of things besides my message.

Page thirteen is representing the design of the circular design that is in my sketchbook as well. The colour co-ordination of the wallpaper, from brown to white has an interesting concept that actually helps my design, however, it would have been better if it was white to black or purple to light blue; something more interesting than brown. However, this is only experimenting. The colour of my design, the use of dark rich purple/almost black does subtly stand out from the wallpaper, but what I am most interested in, is the fact that this design is very beautiful and shows the repetitive action in a circular motion. This motion can also represent the decline and the rise of the woman’s self-destructive behaviour; all in all, showing that one cannot simply behave in one way and then another, we are humans after all, therefore, prone to going back into old/bad habits.

OVERALL.

For my pillowcase design, I think I shall use the iridescent and merge colours from the calico already used for the experiments to overlap each other like page seven using colours that are relevant with the colours already used. The pillowcase in general will be black.

For my wallpaper design, I intend to keep it simple when using colours, therefore white on the dark subtly designed brown wallpaper with the circular design is going to be my final product.

Laser Cutting

An instrument that uses a laser to cut a variety of materials, the laser beam, 0.2 millimetres in diameter, is powered by 1,000 to 2,000 watts and it consists of a sequence of mirrors that directs the laser beam onto the material to cut. The laser cutter is a form of computer aided design (CAD drawing from electronic data) which makes it cut on demand.
The range of materials is really based on its width, as the laser cutter that I have used does not cut through anything that is over 3mm. So therefore, materials such as paper, mountboard, cardboard and fabric are acceptable. The benefit from using a laser cutter, I have found, is that it gives a fine tolerance to the finished item and is more precise.

My experience with the laser cutter shows that programming it correctly is not an option, a fire can occur when one is not concentrating (I did this with cardboard and put it on the mountboard setting) which is extremely dangerous. Apart from that, the experience was simple enough. I read the instructions and remembered them immediately, and everything went smoothly.
Alot can get done, but the demand for the laser cutter is high.

Flock and Foil

Colourful and pretty for the eyes, this process is one of my favourites. The way to do the process is to use the screen from the screen printing process with the design already in place, and then squeegee the glue on calico and/or paper, clean the screen as well as put the glued materials on a dry rack to dry slightly. When dried to a certain degree, I was to place either flock or foil ontop of the glued material and place it in an industrial heating press. The result, when dried and peeled away, is usually colourful and shiny.
The materials are costly but the process is easy enough.
The outcome, where it can be only flock or only foil is an easy enough process, but doing it both takes time and precision. I did not have time to do both, nor the resources, but I did place one ontop of the other in my sketchbook, just to see what it could have looked like. The result, because of the chosen colours, was amazing.

Dry Point

A printmaking process that is usually used on copper plates using pointed tools to etch a design into; however, in my experimentation and for purposes of expense, I was to use thicker acetate paper as a substitute to the copper plate and a pointed metal tool as the one to etch out my design.
Drypoint, in general, only creates a few exceptional prints, because of the material getting so worn down because of the constant etching and the holding of ink within the cracks.

Drypoint was originated in the 15th Century by the Master of the Housebook. His prints were pure drypoints with the use of combining other processes. Rembrandt, a more recognisable figure, often placed dark accents in drypoint to his etchings. One of his celebrated pieces, The Three Crosses, was completely made by drypoint.
Below is my drypoint etching experimentation. It is clear that there are so many ways one can dry point , but with my stencil design, there is not much to it. I did some experimentation but this process is more of lines with empty space. This process could be used as a background.

Lino Printing

Linoleum was invented by a British rubber manufacturer, Fredrick Walton, in 1860 who was looking for a cheaper product. This easy material caught the eye of artists to decide that it was a good material for printmaking. Artists like German Expressionists, Erich Heckel and Gabriele Munter, as well as Russian Constructivist artists by 1913. Black and white linocuts appeared in the UK in 1912, which soon follwed to be full colour linocuts.

The tools usually used to cut out the lino is called the shape blade. There are many different shapes of the blades, each designed to give a different style of cut, from narrow and deep to broad and shallow. I used the broad blade to take off more lino, as well as a scalpel to score the lines exactly so that I wouldnt go off the edge. I did cut myself a few times, understanding eventually that it is better to keep my fingers behind the blade. The blades are very sharp. Also, a key note, it is obvious that what lino is cut away will not be printed and what's left behind, that is where the ink (waterbased ink).

The process is easy enough: once the image is cut into the lino, spread a thin layer of ink evenly across the design with a roller and place in position in a printing press, putting the paper over the top of the lino, the proceed to press the design onto the lino. Printing press tends to speed up the experimentation alot.

However, the printing ink is extremely sticky and tends to dry very quickly when left to its own devices. That is why, it was a good idea to roll it back and forth on a glass palette, before putting it on the lino.

Single colour lino prints were the easiest to do, because there was no need to thought of cutting different parts of the design to get more colour. However, within my experimentation, there was not enough time to explore two or more colours within the process of stopping to put colour on each part of the cutting process; instead, what I did, was to experiment the colour process by how well blending colours on the same palette is. It worked very well.

Textures and different materials, have a good effect also, especially layers that dont have a smooth layer.

Below is my lino cut, where I have scanned it in so it can be seen. There are some holes within the lino, and that is because I cut right through the lino as well as the mesh that was holding it together; this doesnt really make a problem for the final lino print but just to be on the safe side, I have cellotaped the back so nothing can come through. What is more worrying is the fact, that within my experimentation, there were prints that had colour within the white area, where there wasnt supposed to be. This is because some of the lino within the print was not cut down far enough; therefore, there is a small line from not doing enough and going too far.

Screen Printing

The three elements that make the screen printing are the image carrier, the squeegee and the water-based ink

There is the water-based mesh that is tightly stretched over a frame either made out of wood or metal. The image/stencil is produced on the screen photo-chemically via machine.
After the process of placing the image onto the screen, the stencil design is then washed off, leaving a see-through area where the ink can pass through and make a printed design.
This is then needed to dry completely before inking.
Screen printing can print on a whole variety of substances, such as paper, paperboard, plastic, metal, glass and fabrics for industrial products that could include advertising, labels etc that can be of any shape, thickness and size.

For my screen printing experience, I will be using paper, newspaper, calico, coloured paper and printed photographs (low quality).
Example of my design on scrumpled up newspaper below.


The screen, when dried, should be placed in position by cello-taping the outlines of the frame to the table, so that one does not forget where the screen is exactly placed when it has accidently moved. The material, also, is cello-taped down to the table each time to make sure that this doesn't move either whilst the manual printing is in process.
Doing this, from experience, shows a better quality of line. My chosen material is then applied by placing it under the screen, in the position of the stencil; the ink is the spooned evenly above the stencil so the squeegee can place pressure whilst scraping the ink downwards. This process makes the ink to go through the fine mesh openings when drawn over the design. For this experiementation, I was told to do four applications of the squeegee to get a decent stencil design.
When the stencil is then printed unto the desired material, I would hold up the screen and remove the design, placing it in the drying rack.
After that, the process is finished. If one wanted to change the ink colour, the screen would have to go through the process of being washed and dried every time. If one wanted to put more than one colour on the finished stencil, this is a good way to do it. Either that way, or to get a good and different effect, one would evenly put the first colour untop of the top of the stencil then place different spoonfuls of another colour in different areas of the line where the squeegee would commence the scraping of the ink downwards; I have done this and I can say that it is not a good way of getting two colours in the same design.

I did all of this according to my lecturer's instructions and found that this process is very rewarding in the fact that I can repeatedly do my design over and over and there would be no damage or difference within the process. However, it is a very time consuming process.

Colour Theory

The colour wheel, the basic tool for the combining of colours, s the most common version that holds 12 colours based on the RYB (or artistic) colour model.

There are a number of colour combinations that are called colour harmonies/chords that consist of two or more colours that have a fixed relation to the colour wheel. Some colours can compliment each other when they are the opposite colour on the colour wheel.
Analogous colour scheme is when colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel and usually match well. Triadic uses colours that are evenly spaced on the colour wheel, thus making a triadic harmony. Split-complemetary colour scheme is a variation of the complemetary clour scheme, where one chooses a base colour and uses the two colours adjacent to its complement.
Rectangle colour scheme uses four colours that are arranged in two complementary pairs.
And last, but not least, the square colour scheme, similar to the rectangle, uses colours that are spaced evenly on the colour circle.

The three colours that are exactly opposite each other on the colour wheel: red, yellow and blue.
By mixing two primary colours, there are three different secondary colours: green, orange and purple.
Tertiary colours are made by mixing primary and secondary colours together, and in total, there are six.

As well as primary etc colours, each colour has a cool or vibrant warmth to it. Therefore, the colours can be divided into cool or warm colours. Warm is evidently symbolic for vividness, energy and advances in space; cool colours give the impression of calmness. Black, white and grey are considered to be neutral.

The mixture of black/white/grey with a colour creates tints, shades and tones. Tints are created by adding white to a pure hue/colour; shades are when black is added to a colour and tones are when one adds grey to a colour/hue.