Tape 02 -- Repeater 27.04.26 --
Tracks -- Hüsker Dü, Something I Learned Today. Erykah Badu, Didn’t Cha Know. Tim Maia, Nobody Can Live Forever --
This month I started at a new studio. Although now that I think about it ‘new’ may not be the most accurate word to use, as I do have previous experience with Print Club London. It was here, after all, that I tried screen printing for the first time, on a sweltering august day several years ago. Even if the space is not entirely new to me starting a full time membership at a mainly unfamiliar studio does bring back some familiar nervousness. Everyone at the studio has been very welcoming, and the fact that it has such a laid back, friendly atmosphere was one of the main reasons I wanted to become a member here.
But its still a new(ish) studio, with its own way of doing things and it can feel like I’m back to being a beginner again. Thankfully, this feeling hasn’t lasted for long and I’m already starting to settle into a rhythm, figuring things out as I go along. I’ve been lucky enough to work at a few studios, in a few different cities, and increasingly I’ve started to notice the benefit in doing so. As I’ve come to learn every studio has a different way of doing things, each piece of equipment has its own quirks (and believe me when I tell you when that there are a lot of ways in which different tables, exposure units, and washout spaces can be wildly different!), and having enough experience with adapting to different studios has made the process a lot easier.
Besides, I do believe that there’s something about the screen printing process that does sort of lend itself to getting you used to a new space quickly. Its a process that’s built about repetition, and once you’re in the swing of things the movements are familiar enough that it helps you get used to being a new space, using unfamiliar equipment. Paper, register, screen down, flood, pull, screen up, rack, repeat. Each and every print I make has my full attention, but theres enough of a mechanical element to the movement that it becomes familiar wherever you do it.
