See our new fabrics being printed - Sharing the screen printing process
5 min read

See our new fabrics being printed - Sharing the screen printing process

Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of spending the day with our amazing screenprinting team in their studio in Collingwood, Melbourne, as they got started printing our new fabrics for this latest wave of pre-orders.

Meet Nadia and Jason. These two are a super chill, husband and wife team who live and breathe hand printed textiles.

 

It was incredible to witness their entire process, from start to finish, as they brought our fabrics to life with their very skilled hands in their paint splattered warehouse.

 There is so much in it. I loved every minute of being there.

I've done a little bit of screen printing over the years so I had a fairly good idea of how it all works, but Nadia and Jason's set up is a whole new level of epicness.

Printing on this scale requires a huge amount of space,  a huge amount of gear, and a huge amount of skill. 

 

 

I arrived to find rolls of our new custom dyed green organic knit covering the huge lengths of the printing tables ready to be transformed through the printing process. 

First Nadia mixed the colours. I was fascinated by this part of the process. Even though I am a printmaker myself, colour mixing is something I am only just starting to learn more about.

As someone who has always mixed colour by eye,  there is a science behind it that truthfully, boggles my brain a bit. 

Using the Permatone colour system, Nadia uses precise recipes to mix up our custom colour palette.

Using scales to measure each colour. I was surprised to see the purples and yellows being added to the opaque white base just to achieve the unique warm grey ink for 'Nightwalk'. Very cool. 

 

While Nadia was sorting our the exact amounts of ink required to print so many metres of fabric, Jason was preparing the 'stops' on each of the tables.
These are the space markers that link each screen up with the next to create a seemless repeat pattern.
Each design needs a different width of stops, so these little metal guys need to be carefully measured out and moved with each new run. 
Then comes the really impressive part.
There is this beautiful flow in the movements of passing the squeegee back and forwards, then lifting the giant screen, taking steps to the left and placing it back down perfectly in line with the stops.
There are aparts of the process that Jason leads and parts that Nadia leads and together they make such a great and necessary team.
This is not work that can be done solo.
It requires a very cohesive and very skilled team.   
I couldn't help but muse on the layers of relationship that engaging in this process as a husband and wife must bring... I questioned them on this and they just laughed and mentioned the myriad of ways they approach it depending on how they feel on any given day.
I could see how great a team they were though.
There is this relaxed love and peace in their movements. 
There are 4 passes done over the screen with the squeegee and then two passes over each length of fabric that needs to happen.
The first prints, the screens leaving spaces in between each.
Giant fans speed up the drying process and by the time they reach the end of the last table they are ready to start back at the beginning of the first, filling in the gaps and completing the repeat pattern.  
Drying times vary a lot however, and there are intricacies in every step on the process that need to be paid attention too, all depending on the weather.
I was lucky to get a beautiful 30 degree day in Melbourne so the inks dried really quickly and Nadia and Jason were able to set up and print some of all three of our designs in the day I joined them. I was so grateful for that! 
It's very physical work. I was cheering them on at the end of the day as they seamlessly finished each design.
It's a very meditative to process to watch but  more of a combination of meditation and marathon to actually do.
It's so hands on, every step of the way, resulting in such tactile, original and unique fabrics.
I was just buzzing all day learning the finer details of it all, I just wanted to jump in there and get my hands dirty and help! 
After the fabrics are dry, they are rolled back up and sent off to another local business be heat set.
Here they are fed through a massive heat machine, curing the inks ready to be washed and worn time and time and time again.
Ours are high quality art fabrics, made using organic eco inks and organic cotton and made locally by incredibly lovely creative people. Omg, I love this SO much!
Would't have it any other way. 
A lot of people comment on the tactile nature of our fabrics. You can really FEEL the ink sitting on the base.
With each wash and wear this feeling softens but never leaves, gifting you with a knowing that each part of the artwork was worked with human hands and ingenuity, using traditional techniques.
This inherent feeling plus having more of an understanding of the process in the creation,  deepens our relationship to our clothes and we believe to our human community as a whole.
We are striving to make pieces that are as far from fast fashion ideals as possible. We are choosing to make SLOW clothing that truly values the art, the people and the skills at the centre. 
Thanks for joining us on the journey and caring about where your things really come from x