Silk Screen Experiment

So, I've been working really hard on getting my business up and running. There are so many things to do. My most recent foray into creativity has been silk screening. I am designing and producing handbags that draw design inspiration from photos that I've taken on trips to different countries. Much of my time has been spent trying to figure out how I can get my designs from their original state as photos to a graphic that is applied to my bag.

Initially, my idea was to use photo transfer paper to create iron on appliques that I'd sew to the bags. I both liked and didn't like the way that turned out. Ultimately, I didn't think that it was a durable solution.

Then, I bought a silk-screen kit (have no prior silk-screening experience) from Speedball. The directions in the kit are functional, but there is no information to help you know if you are following the steps correctly, so I was really pleasantly surprised when it worked! I'm on my way to making my first official handbag.

My friend Llyndara has a great shoe store in Burlington, VT, called Stella Shoes, which she owns with her friend Piper. She offered to let me sell some bags in her store to get feedback and see how they would do. I've been working to get several done for an event that she is going to be having on April 1, and until today, I didn't think that I'd have anything ready. But I'm feeling optimistic that I might actually be in business in a couple of weeks.

I will be adding my own tutorial on silk screening in a future post (I've got to get some bags made, first). You can see how I did it, and hopefully it will help anyone who is trying to do some silk screening of their own.

There is an excellent tutiorial on DIY silk screening from craftgrrl that helped me to understand the concept.