Studio Visit to Faye McNulty

04 April 2016

For my first meeting of the day I headed down to Bermondsey. Tucked away in a railway arch amongst car repair workshops and what looks like a conservatory company is Printall Studio where print designer Faye McNulty works. The studio is a fully-equipped, open access textile printing studio where members can either pay by the day or sign up for a monthly membership for more frequent access.

I entered through a small side door stepping into a bustling print studio, which was being prepared for a day of printing. As you enter the space it’s hard not to notice two huge printing tables, sitting parallel to one another and measuring 6 meters in length: they are ideal for screen printing repeat patterns on long lengths of fabric. A few freelance printers were busy preparing the dyes and screens for the day. Faye later told me that to print using the table it requires two people, one on either side of the table, to help smoothly run the squeegee from one side to the other. It must be a tough job to do all day!

Further into the arch is a large space dedicated to screen cleaning and drying, to the right is a large exposing unit (.this is used to cure inks/pigments and to transfer images to screens).   There are also several smaller tables, around 3 meters in length, where the print designers can make smaller prints and sample fabrics for fashion houses. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take any photos of these tables, as there were some fabric samples laid out drying ready for a fashion house. Beyond the tables at the back of the arch, were some unusual looking machines: one a bullet steamer that can steam up to 5 meters of fabric, ideal for making small cloth samples The other is a larger atmospheric steamer that can steam up to 12 meters of fabric. These larger steamers are used for fixing dyes and developing discharge (which is…): essential pieces of kit for a printmaker. Another method of fixing ink to a fabric is to put it through the electric conveyor-belt baking unit. What a piece of kit!

Towards the front of the space is a mezzanine, which I missed when I entered as I was too excited by the huge tables. This holds a shop for members to purchase all the dyes, pigments, fixers and other stuff they will need. From this shop Printall Studios also offer other services like making new screens, screen re-stretching, stencil making, digital printing and provision of materials for the fashion industry.

 

Faye specialises in textile print and design, consulting and designing for international artists and fashion designers. She develops experimental textiles using traditional techniques and has worked with innovative research centres, such as London Printworks Trust and Textile Futures Research Centre. Her clients include Topshop, Victoria Beckham, Yinka Shonibare, Alexander McQueen and Kenzo.

Back in February Faye ran a ‘Fabric colour adding and subtracting’ masterclass for our members, see pictures click here. 

Printall Studios ran a screen printing station at our Birthday Open Day in March, see pictures click here.