A couple of years ago, I went chasing a screen printer in Auroville to help me print some images on discarded scrap metal for an exhibition in Geneva. It was when I first came across screen printing and was fascinated with the process. Fast forward a couple of years later and I came across Sam on meetup.com for an all women arts therapy session that I decided to attend.

Mini Print

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Sam and Albert run a small print shop in Seongsu in Seoul. Seongsu has a creative industrial vibe because of its is known for its popular leather shoes shops. Mini Print, Sam and Albert's print studio sits perfectly in the neighbourhood, a stone's throw away from the Han river. A small space on the first floor of a row of continuous buildings, the studio has two rooms: one of which doubles up as an exhibition room that their artist collective, Crazy Multiply, hosts from time to time.

When I first walked into the studio, I was instantly taken by the kind of printmaking they were experimenting it. To add to my fascination with screenprinting, I'd recently met French artist and illustrator Joelle Jolivet who showed us how to make linocuts. On steemit, @erb had made a post about his intaglio print experiments and I'd long been itching to try some kind of printmaking. So when Sam announced a screen printing workshop, I signed up for it immediately.

STEP 1: Print your picture

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This one is straightforward. For this workshop, we had three prints : one of a coconut tree, a circle and some waves. There were a few screens that were already made to begin with. But we made one just to see how it was done.

STEP 2: Make the screen

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Apply a photosenstive emulsion on the screen and let it dry. Place print against screen and expose to light (UV light in this case) so that the the exposed parts solidfy and the unexposed parts remain water soluble.

STEP 3: Wash the Screen

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Spray water on the screen to wash off the emulsion. This gives us a clear area through which the paint will pass.

STEP 4: Choose your colours

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Sam and Albert had picked up a range of satisfying neon colours of which we picked 6; one for each screen.

STEP 5: Prep for painting

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This neon pink colour was my favourite. We put a little bit of it onto the screen.

Step 6 - Paint!

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Using a squeegee, we pass the paint through the screen onto the bags - our medium for the day.

Humble beginnings. I fell in love with how clean the print turned out. Also with the pink colour.

Step 7 - Dry

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I was the worst at this part. I was so eager to paint everything that poor Albert would constantly have to remind me to dry my prints before adding new ones onto the bag.

Step 8 - Experiment

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We tried and tested many different things on the bags. I really missed having a triangle in the picture but it was nice to work with these shapes.

After our simple start, I went a bit crazy. I tried to overlap the circles, make interweaving lines and it all ended up in a nice little mess.

So I toned it down a bit.

But then I wanted to tessellate!

I was accused of being a 'maximalist' so I decided to prove them wrong. I'm not used to working much with colour so I constantly wished there had been a black as well. Maybe it was good that my workshop partner Saffron decided against it as I learnt to experiment a bit with these bright colours.

3 bags - 6 sides - so much colour

They also glow in the dark! We plan on hitting the clubs like this. If I ever get around to hitting clubs

All in all, this was a great way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon. I'm now convinced that printmaking is my life's calling and I want to experiment with different forms of the art. It was also my last Sunday in Seoul because my visa will expire soon and I've now flown back to Chennai. Hopefully I can renew it and fly back to do more screen-printing.