LizzieBlogs!: Tuesday Tablescape... Cacao Crazy!

I've been on a bit of a summer hiatus from posting- I'm going to blame it on travel and laziness- but there's a new project taking up space in my brain and on my desk this week/month/season: I've gone cacao crazy!

Sometimes, my kitchen doubles as a work space, and right now, it's a silk-screening studio! The wooden table is much bigger than my work desk and can accommodate bigger projects... plus, the afternoon light that comes into the kitchen makes it so nice to create in.

I often lose track of time when I'm barefoot, in the presence of bright sunlight, colorful paint, warm colors, and a nice breeze...

Anyhow, that cacao print from the last Tuesday Tablescape has now become a design that I painted onto a silk-screen and transferred onto a bunch T-shirts, pieces of fabric, and paper!
Right now, I'm obsessed with this cacao image I created, and silk-screening is highly addictive.

Once I have a good design painted on a screen, I want to add it to everything! (quick, how many T-shirts can I adorn with this design? Is it crazy for one person to have five shirts with the same image on them- in various color-combinations, of course!?)

I started with drawing the image onto a silk-screen in pencil, then painting in the negative areas with screen filler. After two coats of screen filler and one night of drying time, I'm ready to produce screen-prints! My first cacao screen-print was in white fabric ink on a black T-shirt. I place the screen on the shirt, exactly where I want the design to appear, I spoon a bit of ink directly onto the screen, across the top...

Painting the design...

With white ink on top and ready to print...

Then, I hold the screen in place with one hand, grab my plastic squeegee with the other hand and swipe the paint from the top of the screen, across the painted design, to the bottom of the screen, pick up the squeegee, and slowly pick up the screen...

Click image for video of the process!

And Voila! My design has transferred through the areas that were not painted on the screen onto my T-shirt! Like magic!

Safe to say, once I start, I can't stop. I printed a few white designs onto black T-shirts and a few patterned fabric squares, then yesterday, I decided :"Ooh, wouldn't it be cool for the cacao image to have multiple colors to it?" So I spent the afternoon playing around with orange, white and green fabric ink (the colors of the Ivorian flag, Home Sweet Home) and printing the cacao design onto more blank T-shirts, a tropical photograph printed on fabric, and some leftover paper from past collage projects.