Kerr Grabowski kerr@kerrgrabowski.com Student Materials List
If you have questions, please email. I promise to answer!
About 3-4 yards fabric -in1/2 to 2 1/2 yard lengths(really up to you) -white or light colored silk, rayon, cotton, linen, silk/rayon velvet (protein or cellulose for fiber reactive dyes)NO PERMA PRESS OR BLENDS. You may also bring your own printed fabrics to work into.
FABRIC PREP:Prewash your fabric in hot water to remove any sizing or dirt.
Please soda soak your fabric prior to the workshop.
Following is my recipe-if you soak a different way and it works feel free to use your method.
SODA SOAK: please wear gloves, mask and eye protection
1/2C sodium carbonate(soda ash) per gallon water (more is NOT better)
Dissolve soda ash in cold water and stir into the gallon of water—add fabric-can be damp or dry and can be tightly squished into the bucket. If fabric is not “squished in” I soak for minimum of 15 minutes—if squished, I soak longer---- time to allow the soda water to penetrate fibers.
Wearing gloves and eye protection, wring fabric out and hang to dry. You could also spin fabric in washer (turn off cold water to washer-some allow water to enter during spin cycle) and hang up to dry. Please do not iron or put in dryer. Fabric will scorch easily
If you prefer to use protein fabrics (silk, wool) you may vinegar soak(I use soda with my silks but know that acid is better)
- disposable type gloves
- Dust mask (inexpensive hardware store one is fine)
- pencil
- t-pins
- roll masking tape (any width)
- roll duct tape, tyvek, or clear gorilla tape for taping screens and taping padding to table
- Plastic to cover fabric when batching-6 or so large black trash bags are perfect .
- tongue depressors or plastic spoons (for stirring dye,-etc )
- Scissors-fabric pair anda small, sharp pointy pair for paper and “stuff”
- One ot Two 1" foam brushes
- paint brushes—whatever you have-dont buy a paintbrush—NOT ESSENTIAL
- Containers WITH LIDS -several(at least 5)around 1/4 to 1/2 C. and aquart container(yoghurt,margarine etc.)
- muffin tin, ice cube tray, large plastic lid or something to use for palette
- hairdryer(if you have one)
- cardboard (4 pieces about 8” x 8”or larger,all thicknesses and texturesex. cereal boxes, sketch pad backs, corrugated boxes
- old clothes or apron to protect
- several old towels(or roll paper towels)-any size(could be old dish towels) for drying screens and general clean up.
- hot glue gun/glue (you can share this with a friend) DON'T go out and purchase one!
- Textural stuff - floor mats, corrugated cardboard, plastic doilies, fat string, rubber stamps, material to make new stamps, embossed wall paper, --- DON”T go out and buy a bunch of stuff for this-bring what you have--anytexture not higher than 1/4” might work
- SCREENS
- Dick Blick is a ready source. Size can be from 8x10 to 18x24 with either 8xx, 10xx or 12xx mesh. or 110 monofilament
Please scrub screen(back and front)with something similar to comet, greased lightening or cheap shampoo before class, otherwise, the duct tape might not stick
Kerr isbringing small , appx 6", squeegees for everyone, they are great for Deconstructed Printing--you can get by with this squeegee only OR
Squeegee(optional) should be about 2” shorter than the narrowest screen width. Ex. for a 16x20 screen the squeegee should be about 14”. If you do not want to invest in a squeegee just yet, Speedball makes an inexpensive 9”squeegee for about $8.00, this would be fine (even if smaller than recommended)
In addition to dyes/chemicals, stencil materials and assorted stuff--your Materials fee coversa bondo spreader squeegee and a syringe to use and take home
OPTIONAL
· Any equipment/materials that you have and like to use - syringes, stamps, paint brushes, thermofax screens
· paint brushes—whatever you have, for painting on screen
· good printmaking paper (rivesbfk, arches 88, stonehenge, Japanese papers etc) to use instead of fabric