For our textile class we had to screen print on fabric. I chose to print the story of the Chicago fire. I am very proud of my dedication to this project because I stayed after school many days to work on it. One thing I really struggled with was printing with accuracy, especially keeping my second screen lined up with my first.
Pattern Artist Statement
Zoe Parks
The Chicago Fire
Screen Printing
Size ( 15” x 12” )
This story is important for me to tell because I think the Chicago fire is an important piece of history and Chicago is important to me. Each motif will represent a piece of the story and the last piece is a representative of the whole story.
Aesthetics are important. To decide the colors we did worksheets to learn which colors look most pleasing together. We also did three different drafts of the pattern to decide how to organize the colors. We kept in the mind the meaning of the colors. This is what I chose:
Black: Fire- “Sadness”
Red :Buildings- “Struggle”
Gray: Background, Water Tower – “Loss”
My design is of the Chicago. To learn about pattern symbolism we looked up symbols and wrote what we thought they meant. Then we looked up the real definitions and created a story.
We are printing our designs on fabric. To choose our fabric we went to a textile store. I choose a cotton textile because it was soft but also easy to print on. Also I wasn’t sure what type of textile I wanted to make out of my fabric, so I choose something that I thought we be neutral.
My pattern design layout is block repeat. My layout arrangement is overall, and my pattern direction is one direction. Grid out your fabric so that your pattern is in the right spot each time. First print with the background screen across the whole textile. Then take the foreground screen and print across the whole textile.