Natural Vs Man Made - PRINTING MY FINAL PIECE!

So this is how i started off my final piece, with a blank meter of lining paper, My sample from which i will be recreating my final piece, my technical notes book and masking tape to hold down my lining paper. 

First thing's first, mixing my colours! As the organised student i am, i kept the jar's i had been using at home to store my pigments which are mixed by myself, although i only had 3 so the yellow had to make do in a big pot! These four colours are the colours i used in my sample which was chosen to be recreated for my final piece in my design meeting. As i did not mix enough pigment when doing my samples i had to mix these colours up again by looking through my technical notes and seeing what colour pigment i used. I was nervous about the colours not looking the same as on my sample, so i used a spare meter of lining paper i had to test the colours on, then i would know if i needed to add more pigment or remix the colours.

This meter of lining paper shows that i have tested all my colours and annotated weather i added more pigment to the mix, which i did have to on the yellow and turquoise.
The pigments i used to create my final piece are -
Turquoise 4G 
Orange OL
Pink - Brill red BTL
Yellow - Yellow 2G and a tiny bit of Orange OL (to make it less of a lemon colour)
Now i have successfully mixed my colours, it is time to start printing...

  
Using my first screen, i have to repeat my pattern both horizontal and vertically. I was nervous about smudging my print and repeating it. I came up with a routine which i followed all the way through the printing process. This was to print my screen, and after printing use the squeegee to move the pigment to the side of the screen so it could not block up my print, although this is not advisable i had to do this to manage my time, i then left the pigment on my screen for around two minutes whilst my print dried, if not dried i placed news print over it. I used news print to make sure there is no pigment on the underside of my screen (this will prevent smudging) i then lined up my screen and printed again, then lifted up the news print on the first print i did and i have my first horizontal repeat print, i then washed my screen. I kept doing this routine, printing two times before washing my screen means i save half the time on washing my screen and waiting for it to dry, as i have four screens time management is key.

After four more times of printing, this is what my final piece looks like so far, i am happy with the way it has lined up and i have learnt to just be patient with printing it, this will keep me calm as printing can be stressful if your rushing as mistakes and accidents are more likely to happen.

So now i have completely repeated my first screen all over the meter of lining paper and up to now i am happy with how it has gone and i am totally in love with my print i have created!
Now it is time to use my second screen which i will be using the colour orange with...

My second screen lines up very nicely, i took this picture after doing the first two prints (whilst i was waiting for my screen to dry - the most boring bit about printing!) As the turquoise is a rather dark colour it makes it easy to see through the screen to line my repeat pattern up. 

This is what my final piece looks like now, i have successfully printed with my second screen using Orange OL, i am so please with how it looks so far! Up untill this stage of the process i was completely calm, half way through the process though and nothing has gone wrong!

I knew everything was going too well, i only have this picture of when i had completed using my 3rd screen with the pink pigment as i got really stressed during this part of creating my final piece. Throughout doing my samples, the third screen has lined up perfect, but i knew everything was going too well as it didnt seem to line up when it came to printing as you can see. I printed twice with this screen and decided that it was lowering the quality of my final piece so i decided to sit down with my jar of pink pigment and a brush and paint all the pink in by hand, i am still not happy with the results but it shows effort and patience. As i am optimistic i gathered my positive thoughts and was determined that my final piece would look just as amazing as my sample after i printed my yellow pigment onto it. So i washed my screen, dried the pink pigment with a hairdryer to save some time (as i had just spent an hour painting onto my final piece which should have been screen printed) and i got all my yellow pigment, screen, squeegee and positive thoughts set up and started to print the final layer of my final piece.

And this is what my final piece looks like! My positive thoughts were obviously right as the yellow just gives it a whole new life, i am so happy with how it come out and many more things could have gone so extremely wrong with it but it did not. All my hard work, creating the tracings and samples paid off, even though my first two screens did not expose very well, i solved the problem and put the time in and i am happy with my final piece. I personally would have it as a feature wall in my bedroom, but i think that is just me being proud. I hope everyone likes it!!