my set up for printing on silk

Here's a photo of the way i set up my work table:

it shows how i put down some cardboard cuz the table is rough and then i layer graph paper so i can have straight lines for reference. the first thing to do is to wash the silk. i purchased some professional but environmentally friendly soap from Dharma Trading when i purchased the silk. then it really should be fully pressed before you begin attaching it to the backing (i skipped this and paid in the end!). You should do this on a hard surface which can handle the heat.

here's a photo of my favorite papers to do this with:

The parchment paper is to use on top so your iron doesn't mess up the silk and the freezer paper doesn't mess up your iron. You can use what you like for this, but be warned that regular wax paper will melt and ruin your silk. i like so see thru to the silk so i don't use a cloth for this. The freezer paper is the star of the show for me. I know of no other brand or sizes available. around here only the Safeway seems to carry it.

in this next photo i'm using the closest thing i had to a "T" square to insure that i am laying out the freezer paper very straight.

if the paper is at all not perfectly straight the printer will go crazy.
In this next image i am using the wide masking taper to measure out the amount i have to cut off the width of the paper so that it will fit on my 17 inch printer. darn paper is 18 inches wide.

in this photo i've laid out the silk.

i wonder why i stopped to take this photo? i probably knew darn well i should have pressed this silk before i laid it down on the freezer paper. the day before i'd washed and pressed it and then folded it up in a hurry to do something else.

these next 2 shots show the whole sandwich. the shiny freezer paper, the silk scarf with it's tiny hem, and the parchment paper on top. see how you can see through the parchment to the silk?

these show how you can even see the edge of the freezer paper through the parchment paper as you press the silk to the freezer paper. What's going on here? the coating on the freezer paper is some kind of silicon or plastic. when i set the iron all the way up the coating gently melts and holds onto the silk.

You can also see the blue artists' tape that i made meticulously straight and at right angle to the uncut edge of the freezer paper. this is what makes the whole thing work for me when i insert it into my printer. the edge is slightly heavier than to too light freezer paper and it lets the printer know exactly where the front edge is. the printer can become confused if it sense the edge of the paper and the edge of the silk.

Please note that i should have looked at my old notes at this point. the way my printer works in the banner setting is it creates an extra leading edge. it rolls the paper 7 3/4 of an inch too far before it starts printing. this is easy to fix when you anticipate it. simply use a larger piece of freezer paper than you need and back the silk up so that it starts 7 3/4 inch (or what ever distance your printer adds) from the front edge of your carrier paper.

Although everything looks smooth a beautiful in these close ups it is not! check out the bumps i left in it! DO NOT DO THIS.

Here is the chute i build with chairs and boards and things i found around the house. i laid an old piece of freezer paper down over the whole thing to make a nice smooth slide. The paper goes over the cover for the roll paper which has been removed and down into the roll paper feed.

and the printing has begun! you can see the lively colors, the 7 3/4 inch gap (arrggg) and the beginnings of trouble in the form of black smudges on the edges.

Here's the printer hard at work. i watch for trouble through the smoky lid showing the print head laying down the ink.

the trouble did not get out of hand completely, where the silk lifts completely off the carrier paper, but here's two close ups of how a small weakness grows:

productivity

Today was a very productive day. I made the "contact sheets" for the Alameda on Camera event which is a simply record of our captures this last weekend. I burned them to a disk and labeled it for delivery.

with help I hung the show at City Art in SF and came home to find in my email an acceptance of 8 of my pieces to the next Serenity Spring, a revolving show at UCSF Center For Women’s Health.

the work is due mid April, between the two open studio weekends, when I will have a new show at City Art. hum, I think I need to but some frames!

on the personal side I got my daughter a new phone, took her out for both lunch and dinner, and went grocery shopping.


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kayla garelick, daydreaming artist
http://daydreamingarts.net
http://facebook.com/kayla.Garelick

Location:Berkeley

openings

going to openings is not easy. I often spend more time looking for a place to park than I do at the opening. and you gotta get out of your paint stained work clothes. but it's always worth it. the art is always interesting and stimulating of your own creativity. because i'm shy, if it's not my opening I usually split after congratulating the artist and checking out all the art. tonight I got to two openings. the first was in San Francisco at 111 Minna, a hopping bar. my pal Mike Kimball had a new series which invokes the romanticism of my youth. fast cars and rain. remember necking in cars in the rain? remember gas at 35 cents a gallon? I didn't meet the other artists in the show but I did have a conversation with a stabbed about the art. amazing! on of the reasons openings are hard for me is because I want to talk about the art and people just wanna talk. so I really enjoyed that encounter. the second opening was RAW in Berkeley. it definitely lives up to it's name. several pieces we propped agains the wall, on the floor or tables, and tall thin pieces hung much high than standard. it was not in the lobby of the Hotel Shattuck, nor in the popping bar, but down a long hallway, passed the restrooms, thru the courtyard into a room you might rent for a book club luncheon. there was more than wall art. there was some jewelry, greeting cards and phone books with art on the covers, a DJ and a fellow using a projector to demonstrate drawing in Photoshop. or so it appeared. but he was projecting it on a wall where someone else's art was hung. I really liked the gal who was promoting it but I was kinda disappointed.
here's some art of mine,




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Open Studio 2008

Everyone is invited to come to my Open Studio for 2008! Organized by ArtSpan

San Francisco Open Studios occur throughout October, with different neighborhoods open each weekend. my studio is in The Sunset and we are open Oct 11th and 12th 11 am to 6 pm.

daydreaming arts studio is located at 2169 20th Avenue Just off of Route 1.

I have so much new work this year it's very exciting getting ready. I will have 13 brand new oversized abstract photos framed and hung for presentation and a mountain of new prints that have not yet been framed.
You can see these at my new website, daydreamingarts.net

I also have mixed media work including several new silk works such as hand printed scarves, wall hangings and a new "found art" window with a silk montage and beach elements.

for my photographic prints i always use the original capture, but for the mixed media and silk i enjoy creating montages with those images so this work has a surreal impression. The picture on the right is one such montage that i used one my latest window.

Kayla's Open Studio Oct 13 & 14

To all my Art Lovers and Friends:
Yes it's been a whole year since the last Open Studios here in San Francisco.

Next weekend The Sunset and surrounding neighborhoods will be having Open Studios. Come see my most recent fine art photography, which focuses on the spiritual in the material world. I also have some handmade books, and wall & window hangings that utilize my photography.

Kayla's Open Studio
Oct 13 & 14, 2007 at
2169 20th Ave., San Francisco, Ca, 94116

Part of the fun of open studios is seeing works in progress. I have been experiment with many forms of mixed media and going through and exploratory and playful period with working with encaustics, polymer clays, incorporating real objects of nature into these works. Feedback on these experiments is very valuable to me so come see the process and give your opinions.

Because i have been diagnosis with a second serious bone marrow cancer and will have to go through a bone marrow transplant soon, i feel a strong urge to share my work this last time before i undergo this procedure which will likely keep me busy for the next year. I feel that the work that I've done will be complete when it hangs in homes and spreads the joy! I will continue making art - it brings me so much satisfaction - but i will not have the energy to have open studios or continue to submit to galleries for quite some time.

So please come by. Prices are deeply discounted to facilitate spreading the deep connection with nature that i hope my work creates. 10% of sales will be donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/ who do so much to support research and public understanding of bone marrow diseases, while providing practical assistance to patients and family. I love this organization!

Go here if you want information on my disease (MDS):
http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=55442

My Heath Story and more information on MDS and Bone Marrow transplants:
http://daydreamer.pnn.com/2713-health-and-wellness
See some of My Art: http://daydreamer.pnn.com/2103-the-art-page (explains spiritual connections and http://daydreamingarts.blogspot.com/ discusses process

October 13 - 14th 2169 20th Ave., San Francisco, Ca. 94116
use google maps to get directions: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&time=&date=&ttype=&q=2169+20th+Ave,+San+Francisco,+San+Francisco,+California+94116,+United+States&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=71.064097,111.972656&ie=UTF8&lr=lang_en&cd=1&geocode=0,37.747299,-122.477098&ll=37.747355,-122.476251&spn=0.008908,0.013669&z=16&om=1