Twenty years ago Joan Campbell who is remembered as a 'pioneering potter' of WA had her studio in the old Kerosene Store, right on Bather's Beach facing the Indian Ocean. Joan instigated the installation of a large wooden jetty formed from the old timbers of Busselton Jetty if I am to understand correctly, as homage to the history of the area and on which people climb, lol, and lie under the glow of the sun or the moon, according to their whim. Joan screen printed, artwork, text and maps illustrating the place in former times, onto tiles which were installed into a horizontal beam. As you can see, the tiles have suffered in the two decades, from the very harsh climate or from vandalism.
I have been asked, by Fremantle Council's Public Art Coordinator, to replicate the tiles, as faithfully as I can. This week, I have done a fair bit of ground work in testing mesh sizes of silkscreens for the job. The true test will be after lacquering the prints, applying them to test tiles and firing them. Then I will know which mesh type gives the best print with the china paint. The green ones here are Riso Screens which use a thermal printer to process, and the pink ones are Stencil Pro which can use sunlight to expose the image onto the mesh. So there is a bit of local history, culture and some print on clay info to boot for you. I will post again as the work progresses.
