The Fun World of Screen Printing

 My first experience with screen printing was in my high school graphic arts class. For one assignment we made a mixed CD, created an insert and screen printed the CD with an image of our choosing. My mix was full of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd and what that had to do with a lion crest is something that has been lost in the sands of time.

I can't believe I still have this!

 What I do remember though is how much I really liked using the screen printing process and how I was really intimidated by all of the steps that it took to prepare a screen for printing. This kept me from trying screen printing for a long time.

Flash forward a couple of years to a trip to the thrift store where I scored a compete screen printing set for a whopping $5! 

While it came with a set of directions, they were less than helpful as I kept getting distracted by the extremely creepy drawings that accompanied the instructions. So the kit sat unused for many years and made the trip to Thailand and back without ever being opened.

What is wrong with his face ?!

What finally inspired me and gave me the confidence to finally take up screen printing again was a series of tutorials posted by Quirkiecraft. The tutorials are really clear and all the photos were really helpful. So, I started my new foray into screen printing by selecting a couple of images that I wanted to use to make some hand printed fabric and used drawing fluid to paint the images on to the screen. 

One thing I did learn from using the drawing fluid was that it is really hard to paint fine lines because the fluid tends to spread and obscure the lines. I actually had to rinse out my screen and start over twice before I created a satisfactory screen.

Screen ready for screen filler

Ready for printing!

Using these screens, I was able to create some really fun fabrics. 

"Believe" Mixed Media Canvas

I can't seem to stop making mixed media canvases with lots of texture. I tried really hard to stay away from the modeling paste on this canvas, but apparently I just couldn't help my self.

Fun with stencils!

So this canvas started out with a mixture of acrylic paints and spray inks. I really wanted to make an art piece similar to this one, but with a little bit of a twist. So my next step was to bust into our tape stash and cover the canvas with random tape strips.

All taped up and no where to go

Next I used some white acrylic paint over the top. The idea was that the spaces would be white, leaving the painted spaces under the tape. However I didn't take two things into consideration with my brilliant plan.

1. Spray inks continue to react even after they've dried.
 I ended up with a pastel green/blue instead of the bright white that I wanted.

2. Electrical tape makes a really bad mask.
 The red tape above was some electrical tape I had handy. It didn't seal correctly, so the white paint seeped under the tape, messing up my clean lines.

A pretty pastel, but not really what I was going for.

So after I pulled the tape off the canvas, I tried to figure out how to salvage this piece of art. I decided to do what I do best- build up layers and layers of texture using modeling paste. I also used Distress re-inkers to draw on the canvas and added some bubble wrap stamping. The final touches were some painted cardboard strips and chipboard letters.

So much texture!

So I guess the moral of my story is that 1. It is really hard to resist the siren call of the texture paste and 2. If you've messed up on a piece of art, more layers of paint and texture will fix that right up.

Mmmmm Texture...

Ahhh, I just love all of the texture on this mixed media piece. I started this piece with a 6 inch X 6 inch canvas. I covered the canvas with paper from a variety of books in different languages as well as music sheets. I also cut apart a bingo card and decoupaged that onto the canvas.

The next layers were built up over time. I would pick up the piece every day and either smear some texture paste, crackle medium or spray inks onto the canvas. The arrows at the top and the circles at the bottom were made by pushing Liquidtex texture paste through a brass stencil and sequin waste. I used my favorite spray inks by Dylusions as well as Tim Holtz's Distress Stains to add the color.

The clock image at the bottom as well as the Chinese (I think it's Chinese) characters at the top were added last. I stamped these images onto white tissue paper using Black Staz-On ink. I then decoupaged the tissue paper on top of all the texture. I love how the tissue paper melts into the canvas and you still see the texture underneath.




Here is a shot of one side of the canvas. This really shows the crackle medium an the texture paste. Once everything was dry I ran a bronze ink pad over the top to highlight the peaks.

It was so much fun creating this art piece. I loved being able to pick it up everyday and add a little something new.

Roast Duck Extravaganza!

The very first night that we met our friends Brock and Josh, we were sitting at the beer gardens by CentralWorld asking each other the typical questions that expats ask when meeting a fellow expat for the first time, such as; "How long have you been in Thailand" ,"What do you do","Where do you live" etc. Eventually the discussion came around to eating and cooking (as it usually does) and when we casually mentioned that we had an oven in our apartment, Brock immediately exclaimed " I am going to roast a duck in your oven!"

Fast forward five months, and we finally got our act together for the roast duck extravaganza. The adventure began with a trip to the Klong Toei Market to pick up a duck as well as the ingredients to make the duck sauce.

After wandering through the market for a while, we made our way to the duck section. There we found a booth with duck and duck parts as well as live ducks. I assumed that we would get a duck that was already dead- but boy was I wrong. The adorable girl running the duck booth, after hearing Brock's request for a whole duck, proceeded to pull a live duck from a cage and tried to hand it to us. After some very disturbing pantomime, we finally got the message across that we would prefer the duck to be deceased. We were afraid that she was going to kill the duck right in front of us, but luckily she took it away and came back with it all wrapped up in a plastic bag.

It wasn't until we arrived at our apartment that we discovered that they neglected to gut and clean the duck. Luckily, the internet was there to save the day! It's amazing what you can find on YouTube. Athough watching men say things like "You don't want to rupture the gall bladder cause that will taint the meat." is not really the most enjoyable way to spend a Saturday morning.

After watching a few videos about how to gut a duck, Brock tackled the disgusting task. I don't want to talk about the disgusting details too much, but I was amazed at what came out of that duck! Needless to say I was impressed with how well we were able to keep our gag reflex under control, although I think Brock almost lost it when the metal I.D tag on the duck scraped the cutting board and it sounded just like a duck quack. 

Brock carefully making the first incision

After the disgusting part was done, we worked on prepping the the bird for it's 4 hour roast in the oven.

Removing pin feathers

Cutting strategic slits to make the skin delicious

After hourly flips and basting with an orange tamarind sauce, the duck was ready to be served to the hungry masses who spent hours drooling as the smell of roast duck filled our apartment. I don't really have any details on the recipe used or the specific techniques, but perhaps Brock will write about them on his blog.

After this successful duck roasting, we've already started planning for our next cooking adventure, so stay tuned!

Who wants some duck?

Let's Get Some Christmas Up In Here

Getting into the Christmas spirit in a tropical Buddhist country is difficult. It's hard to think about decking the halls with boughs of holly when it is 90 degrees outside and you are drenched in sweat from a trip to the market. Luckily, we have air conditioning that we can turn down really low and we were able to bring most of our Christmas decorations from the U.S., so at least our apartment is a "Winter Wonderland". It's not perfect, but it helps us deal with being away from our family during the holidays.

Our tree in all it's glory

It goes well with the lights of the city outside

Nothing says "Christmas" like sugar cookie fish, gnomes and horses

Almost too pretty to eat... almost.

What's for Dinner??

So, just as an advance warning- this post will contain copious amounts of food photos and absolutely no photos of cute monkeys or beautiful Thailand scenery. Consider yourself warned!

Both Eric and I get a lot of questions from friends and families back home. A lot of those questions have to do with food; "What's the food like?" (Answer = delicious) and "Have you eaten any bugs yet? " (Answer = no, not yet. But it is on my to-do list) "Do you eat rice everyday?" (Answer = nope)

So to alleviate some of our families' concerns about our diet, I thought I would  take a photo of what we ate for dinner for a whole week. I am sorry that some of the photos show half eaten food, sometimes we were so hungry that I was halfway through my meal before I remembered to take a picture.

Monday: The Dubliner Pub in Bangkok.

Club sandwich for me and a burger for Eric

You can't go to a pub and not get a beer, right?

 Tuesday: Tacos and homemade apple pie

All that is missing is the cheese

 Wednesday: Pad Thai and a salad from the street vendors

All of this cost only 40 baht ($1.50)

 Thursday: Thai steakhouse that I can never remember the name of.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Friday: Hua Hin Night Market

Yes, that IS a 1/2 pound shrimp!

A napkin bikini to complement my girly drink

 Saturday: Hua Hin beach restaurant

BBQ ribs and deep fried sea bass

Som Tum and Tom Yum Goong

Sunday: Street Vendors at the Loy Krathong celebration

Pork, pickles and eggs, oh my!