Screenprinting at Christ Church, Stamford

February 2008

Christ Church Access and Learning Centre is a special place in Stamford which works with The Bluecoat Children's Centre, allowing children from the community to become involved in various arts activities. On this occasion, the nearby Bluecoat Primary School made its facilities available to 13 young people aged 9-11to learn about screenprinting over a two day period. Children of that age are not often invited to screenprint, as it can be both technical and messy, requiring a more mature mind. But as I have worked with children from this school before, and know Tim Howley, the Headteacher who organised the event, it was possible to teach them the process. It wouldn't have happened, though, without the support of many adult helpers, who were essential in meeting the demands of screen cleanliness, ink distribution, stencil preparation, fabric printing, and crowd control !

Day one was an introduction to the technique, and taught the children how to print onto paper using easy to cut paper stencils. This then lead to the creation of a two colour design, culminating in the printing of T-shirts, one for each child, with their own very special picture on it.

Jonathan Korejko 2008 T: 01526 378222 E: jj.ck@zen.co.uk W: www.timberlandand.co.uk

The children gained enough confidence whilst T-shirt printing to accept a more challenging task. Day two was based on imagery from the Church: a wonderful stained glass window radiating multi-coloured light throughout the room. At the same time, everyone was given insight into the history of Christian iconography, and the way in which these symbols could be made into very potent and interesting stencils for screenprinting.

The stencils were laid out on a large 120cm x 240 cm ( 4ft x 8ft ) piece of cloth, and used to plan a frieze along the sides and bottom of the proposed banner. Children then proceeded to print their images directly onto the cloth, interspersing the symbols with zig zags and curves to represent decorative stone carving (Norman stone tracery) or water, ( the source of life. ) Images which the children chose to design were both figurative (lamb, crown,butterfly) and symbolic (cross, the trinity, Greek X+P). Colours were kept simple, and repeated from one side to the other.

The central area of the cloth was left until last, in order to create a feeling of prismatic light, just as the rainbow colours of the stained glass window illuminated the walls of the church hall with a variety of shapes, shadows, and tones. Everyone cut different sizes of triangular stencils which were then printed in rapid succession onto the fabric.

In total, every child had to "pull" their print at least five times in order to construct the final picture. The completed banner tells the story of our collaboration, our understanding of the process of screenprinting, our energy and the fun we all had learning about something quite new and different.

Jonathan Korejko 2008 T: 01526 378222 E: jj.ck@zen.co.uk W: www.timberlandand.co.uk

Screenprinting at Christ Church, Stamford

February 2008

Light Descending
A Banner by the children of The Bluecoat Children's Centre, Stamford
February 2008

Jonathan Korejko 2008 T: 01526 378222 E: jj.ck@zen.co.uk W: www.timberlandand.co.uk