Screen Printing with Mordents, Acids, and Alkalis

I had an idea... well more of a need. I wanted to put my logo on my designs without driving my coast of making up, while still keeping the product natural and organic.

I began by burning a screen with the image that I use as my logo, its a mannequin that I have used in my artwork for years named Janice. I have not burned a screen in almost a year. Actually the burning part was not the problem, I didn't coat the screen with the emulsion evenly. I think if I had the product would have come out much better.

After burning the screen I made up three different pastes. I combined a translucent pigment stretcher used primarily in screen printing with an iron mordent, cream of tartar, and soda ash. The iron mordent and the cream of tartar mixed into the water salable clear base easily. The soda ask did not dissolve so easily. I dissolved the soda ash in 4oz. of boiling water before stirring it to the clear bass. Next the soda ash past was spread over a paper to soak up access water.

After paste were mixed, I then printed the three different mixtures onto three different fibers, organic cotton, bamboo fleece, and silk. Making 9 samples total. After printing the samples were left to dry for 30 min. The silk was a heavy twill, I tried it on something lighter but the image would only bleed.

The samples were placed in a madder root dye bath with an alum mordent for 10min.

The image comes out fantastically with out modify the bath too much.