Rain of Fire

Friday, March 27 was International Food Day at our school - most of the clubs set up tables in the courtyard during lunch and sell ethnic foods. Since all three of our ERA club presidents are graduating this year, they were pretty determined to make it an awesome day. Meaning it was a really busy week.

We’d already met at our house once to discuss the ERA club jackets. Connie and Jessica turned out a pimpin’ design. The only problem was that we couldn’t get the design and the jackets to a professional printer and get them back by Friday - so we did it ourselves.

Monday: Prep Day #1

• Connie called me from a Dick Blick art store to ask me if I’d be interested in helping to silkscreen thirty-something jackets for our club members. We had some silkscreening experience from our jobs in the gallery last year. I agreed with some mixed feelings. While I thought it would be fun, I was anticipating a major disaster.
• They dropped off the supplies at my house:
  • one large silkscreen and one small
  • a base frame
  • clamps
  • white and blue ink
  • big squeegee
  • photo emulsion and remover
  • ink fixer

• I cleaned off the shelves in my closet, covered the screens with photo emulsion, then set them inside my closet to dry in complete darkness. Nothing to do but wait.

Tuesday: Prep Day #2

• The plan for the day was to have the main design (which we planned to print in white) burned onto a screen. About 20 seconds after we started burning the screen in the sunlight, Connie realized it was backwards.
• By then it was too late. We scrubbed out the screen with photo emulsion remover and prepped it again.
• That night I hovered anxiously over the screen as it burned under a floodlight. An hour and a half passed before I thought it had burned enough. I crossed my fingers and, in the absence of a high-pressure hose, scrubbed out the screen with a toothbrush. The design came out perfectly.

Wednesday: MAJOR SCREENPRINTING DAY

• The night before, I’d emailed Eric a long list of instructions and cautions. They would be doing the first segment of the screenprinting process without me or Connie.
• As soon as school ended, Connie and I rushed to Alick’s parents’ laundry shop to check out the progress - there were some problems with the screen getting blocked with ink, but some of the jackets were coming out really well.
• Connie, Emily and I went back to my house to burn the next screen, with which we would print the blue part of the design. No mistakes this time. We checked and double-checked to make sure the design wasn’t on backwards.
• We barely had time to deliver it back to the shop before it was time to go back to school for our afternoon Organic Chemistry lecture.
• Ahhh my brain
• By the time my lecture was over, the sun was setting. Connie and I went back to burn the last screen, the front portion that read ERA ‘08-‘09, by floodlight as we ate a quick dinner.
• The guys had finished printing the white part. Some of the worse-off jackets had been printed with blue in an attempt to salvage the design. However, the blue was not lining up very well to the white, so the designs that had printed well the first time were left untouched.
• Everyone picked up the pace to finish the last segment. SUUUUPER SILKSCREENING AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT.
• It was late by the time we finished cleanup. I took the jackets that needed stains and smears washed out back home with me.

Thursday: COOKING/IRONING

• The club presidents bought like 30 pounds of chicken. They got a headstart on cooking, defrosting chickens and peeling potatoes.
• I spent most of the afternoon in the garage ironing jackets, heat-setting the designs into the fabric. Either the jacket or the ink was giving off fumes. I opened the garage door to get an air current going.
• The few times I ventured into the kitchen, I walked into a bustling crowd of people cutting half-frozen chicken, peeling potatoes, cutting them into strips or cubes, or running around with pots and knives.
• Our house was still busy in the evening. I finished ironing all the jackets - however, many of the jackets did not have blue printed on them, following Wednesday’s debates about taking that risk. After a lot of discussion, I decided to print blue anyways on my jackets and for anyone else who wanted it.
• One failed stencil later, I managed to make an accurate print by looking through the gaps of the screen and tugging the jacket into position. Success! However, the screen had to be washed out every time, and the blue ink was running out.
• Connie decided to introduce the guys to Karaoke Party. -_-
• The chicken was cooked by the time everyone had to leave; Eric took the potatoes home with him. Overall, our prospects for International Food Day were looking good.

Friday: International Food Day: HUGE SUCCESS

• Wayne picked me up in the morning so that we could get the club jackets and the food to school. So much chicken x_x
• We set up frantically in the courtyard during advisory; we needed two tables for all of our food. Jessica’s banner was amazing. We taped it up behind our tables for all to see and bow down to.
• We had a HUGE amount of food, the coolest club jackets (hand-printed!), and a LOT of buyers. The line of people at our table stretched halfway across the courtyard.
• I had a great day! I had to leave to give my last Z-Club presentation before cleanup was over (and they took the club-photo-with-jackets after most of the non-seniors had left to go back to class D:<).

It was a great week, and I’m glad we got to do some silkscreening again. There are a lot of people dedicated to ERA. With our founding club members graduating this year, we all kinda wonder what will happen to the club next year.

Also, today I washed my club jacket in the washing machine for the first time. The ink didn’t come out! Success!