Margaret Moore
Guidance Notes Print and Handwriting
Isle of Wight Contemporary Craft Group, QuayCrafts were commissioned to create a piece of work inspired by the stories of the Isle of Wight Rifles and their role in Gallipoli during the First World War.
Look at the things that interest you. I chose the tropics hat that I drew at Carisbrooke Castle Museum, as worn by The Isle of Wight Rifles, in newspaper photographs of 1915. I also looked online and used the letters sent to and from loved ones who went to fight at Suvla Bay.
- Make sketches and/or take photographs of the pieces that interest you.
- Using simple shapes, draw your image on transparent plastic in pencil. Plastic food and product containers could be used or computer transparency acetate. It must be thin enough to handle easily and thick enough to not crease up easily.
- Cut the shapes out of the plastic using scissors. One or more copies of the stencil may be needed. I used three different shapes and thirty stencils.
- Choose a paper that is thin and absorbent. If you want a coloured background use a coloured paper. I used brown wrapping paper. Computer printing paper and rice paper are good.
- Choose an ink such as Ready Mix,( to extend its drying time add soya oil or washing up liquid),Powder Paint (mixed with soya oil or cooking oil), Water Wash Screen Printing Ink, Acrylic Paint, (extend drying time with retarder), Water Wash Block Printing Ink. Use nontoxic inks and pigments that are washable with water and washing up liquid.
- Use a smooth waterproof surface to ink up the stencils and to print off. A table with a Formica type top or a stiff plastic sheet .You can use a print roller to ink up with. Roll the ink on the surface of the table and then onto to stencil, making sure it’s thin. Ink up small stencils with your fingers, this usually goes on the correct thickness. Ink up with small pieces of cotton and dab the ink on. You can also paint detail onto the stencil with a brush. You are now ready to print.
- Place your stencil on the paper, ink down, using a piece of tissue over the back of it. Burnish the back of the stencil with a Barron, your thumbnail or the back of a spoon.
- The image might be complete when you remove the stencil or you might want to print multiple stencils multiple times to make your image.
- I quoted from letters written at the time. To write them I used my own handwriting and I used a drawing pen. This is similar to the pens used in the past. You could use a dip pen, a fountain pen or a drawing pen to write with. You find out what it’s like to use an oldfashioned pen and what your hand writing looks like when you have used one.