After some modern communication issues Becca is able to tell us more about her trip to India.
We’ve all been fascinated in the office about the complicated processes which are required for screen printed fabrics, and the skill needed to produce them.
After spending some time in Mr Ravis factory Becca moved on to the screen printers. As you can see from the countryside she travelled through, she was in an agricultural area, and one of the crops being harvested was Tumeric which is piled for drying pre manufacture into a product we all recognise. It’s a valuable crop so whilst this process is going on someone sleeps in shelter made from the drying crop.
At the factory the new screens are under way...
Becca has previously taken Susie’s original designs at home and put them on to computer software. This allowed her to strip each colour from the design, layer by layer, until she had a set of drawings, which once laid back on top of each other again made the finished full colour design.
These layers of the design represent one screen print frame, so a whole series of these frames is needed to make a panel of the finished design. Becca hands over her work to the experts!
The base fabric is laid out, and it is a meticulous process of positioning each screen to ensure the pattern is perfect. If the subsequent screens are not laid on top in exactly the right position the next colour layer will not match the pattern required.
The colour application is also a tricky process – just the right amount of colour has to be applied, and with just the right amount of pressure. By the end of the week they even let Becca have a go!
The temperature during the day was about 38 degrees, with very high humidity, and added to the tough change for her in temperature, she was also fighting a bit of jet lag.
Work was interrupted by standard power cuts throughout the area twice a day which also meant that the work had to start at 6am to get some printing in before they began, and working until early evening – definitely not a glamour job!
We loved the fact that Becca travelled half way around the world, and to and from the factory, exhausted, with her Susie Watson bag!!
Well Done!
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