THEA WILKIE : Final Piece.

(10/01/14) The start of my final wallpaper. This image below was an important piece of my project final, it may not look it but it was. It was were I tested the Brusho colours for my background, I wanted to make sure it wasn't to light too dark too blue, too red or too purple. I tested the colours on a A2 piece of paper.

Finally! I got the colour as close to the original as I could, this was done by using the same colours as the sample; the Brusho's 'Brilliant red' and 'Turquoise'. After covering the whole meter long piece of lining paper, which I am creating my wallpaper on, with Batik lines like the sample I covered it in the Brusho mix; after doing this I realised the colour is a little brighter however it works really well on a larger scale, plus re-creating a Brusho is very hard because of the ratio of each powder colour.

Also just like my sample as it is important to re-create it to a T, I flicked small bits of 'Brilliant Red' brusho powder over the lining paper and let them seep. I then like my sample used Batik again to create lines over the coloured background.

These are the Brusho's I mixed to re-create the coloured sections from my sample; I used the same three separate colours used on my sample, which were a Turquoise, Violet and Emerald Green Brusho's. When adding the Brusho to the water I tried to make the colours quite strong and bright so that they aren't too dull against the background.

This image below shows the background I have created with the Turquoise and Violet Brusho's on; at this point I had not applied the Emerald Green.

These next three images shows my final background outcome form different angles. As you can see I have applied the Emerald Green Brusho to the piece, I personally think that the Emerald Green really gives the background a little something else that attracts the eye to it. Once the colours had dried fully, I ironed the wax from the Batiking off of the lining paper, this is to ensure a flat wax free surface ready to be printed on. I am EXTREMELY pleased with how the final background has turned out; it may be brighter that the sample but I think it works really well on this scale. As it has turned out so well I am excited yet nervous to begin printing on it as it took time for me to re-create this background too look remotely like my sample and I do not want to miss print and ruin it.

The start of my final printing process. As I stated in my previous blog post I am printing the screen containing the outer section of my design first to make it easier for me the measure the width in between each repeated print. After each print of the outer design I jet washed my screen and placed it to dry in the drying cabinet; I did this so that the screen didn't block up whilst waiting for the printing pigment to dry, also I didn't want to smudge the wet pigment or cause pigment to seep through the design on the screen. For the outer print I mixed my own pigment dye, this was created using Turquoise 4G, Violet Blue 2BTL and Grey BT. Once the pigment had dried (if not I went over it with a hair dryer to speed the drying process up) as well as the screen; I began to repeat the print, I used a ruler to measure 3" from the previous printed design and made sure that it was lined up as alike to the previous print as I could and then printed the outer section again. I repeated this until the meter long lining paper section was filled with the same width between each print.

I began to print the inner section whilst my screen was drying in the cabinet, obviously I made sure the outer printed pigment was dry first to ensure the screen holding the inner section didn't smudge it. Again I mixed my own pigment colour using Blue B and Pink 5BTL. This second screen was a lot easier to line up as it is simply just ensuring it sits ok in the outer design. Again to avoid pigments seeping, blocking my screen and smudges I jet washed my screen and placed it into the heat cabinet to dry.

SUCCESS! I have managed to successfully, without any major and noticeable mistakes complete my meter long wallpaper product. I am very happy and pleased with how it has turned out, and there is very little I would do different. If there was something I wanted to change it would be the direction I printed my design, for example instead of printing the designvertically I would in future take note and print the design horizontally; this is because if I printed it horizontally I would be able to get an even width between each print when it is repeated. However I am happy with the end product; as you can see what it is based on and I think it suits the objective for what I want my wallpaper to be used for (pool house or aquarium). Also I made sure I managed my time right and didn't rush, as I have found when I rush my prints they can go wrong.

The images below show my final piece from different angles and at different scales.