marimekko in town

First Frida and Diego at the AGO, now Marimekko, With Love at the Textile Museum... Toronto keeps us well entertained and educated.

For those not familiar with the Finnish company, Marimekko is one of the most iconographic textile houses since the early 50's, when it took the world by storm under the vigilant eye of Armi Ratia and the extraordinary group of designers she recruited to help her launch and establish her vision. One of the most representative designs? Maija Isola's Unikko in red.

Unikko by Maija Isola for Marimekko, 1965.

I have no recollection of when my infatuation with the brand started, I know however, that it was something akin to what the Italians mean when they say "colpo di fulmine". The moment I set eyes on those bold, colourful, unassumingly beautiful designs, I was hooked for life.

MARIMEKKO INSPIRED
During our members meeting at CTS, Rachel suggested we offered a workshop at the studio to tie-in with the Marimekko show at the Textile Museum, and I'm very happy to say I will be teaching it, yay! So in the spirit of it all, Monday, last week, I visited the exhibit, which by the way, had only been open for a couple of hours. It was most interesting to learn about Karelia, the Toronto link with Marimekko from the very late 50's to the late 70's. After the show, and while waiting in the car for E to come out of school, I doodled three designs in my notebook, two of which I knew were ready to go. Just like that! Marimekko inspired, indeed.

Sunday was spent at the studio, finishing films, shooting screens and printing a few samples  of one of the designs in very different colourways, I named it "pebbles".

I'm posting the process, from ideation to print: 1-as a memory of this swift project which helped  review the steps involved in the printing process with my Monday class, 2-to gain insight regarding the outline and content for the workshop, 3-to procure a production-ready design.

Preliminary sketches in the pages of my "handbag" notebook. Hardware equipment: A letter-size photocopier. The design was scaled up to fit comfortably within the screen. Positives (or films) high-tech tools: Mylar, India ink in a chopstick and brush marker, opaque marker, fine sharpie, scissors, utility knife, yellow colour pencil, Canson black paper (for the ground color) and double-sided tape.

Screens shot, no touch-ups necessary. Plenty of tape is needed to mask the edges.

The ground colour (orange) is printed first. Once dry, the outline colour (red) is printed on top. The mysterious object on the side of the screen on the top left image is a brick covered in plastic bags. It helps hold the screen down so it doesn't shift during printing.

Printed samples, in various colourways. The preliminary palettes came from card stock in very vivid colours.

I now need to figure out end-uses (besides pillows), any ideas?

__________________