ImagesMagUK_December_2021

www.images-magazine.com DECEMBER 2021 images 33 IS DECORATOR PROFILE Switching to water-based was like learning to print again Screens ready to print Brixton Cycles T-shirts music I was listening to. It was the DIY ethos that was born out of punk.” After school, he got a job in screen printing, doing industrial, corporate work, which he continued to do after moving to London in 2002. Alongside working at garment decorator and promotions firm Bilko in Battersea, he printed T-shirts for bands for which he was booking gigs and tours. Out of this emerged Carry on Screening in 2005, leasing equipment from Bilko. Ethical business practices The name is inspired by a song, Carry on Screaming, by British hardcore punk/metal band Extreme Noise Terror (or ENT) which Si became a fan of in his youth. ENT was later a client of Carry on Screening, and punk and metal bands and record labels are now a core part of his customer base, some for over 15 years. “Sometimes it’s a band that started small and, as it’s got bigger, quite often the band takes on new management or a new label and the merch goes to a bigger company, but most of our clients make an effort to stay with us.” Si sticks to customers who share his values, from pressure groups, campaigns and hunt saboteur groups to co-operative and independent businesses such as Brixton Cycles, the vegan Black Cat Café in Hackney, punk music store All Ages Records in Camden, the player-owned Clapton Football Club, and music venue and pub The Dev in Camden. While Si has always been drawn to ethical business practices, he has fully embraced them since moving to Somerset in November last year and opening the studio, which was purpose-built by Rockaway Park carpenter Flash, in January. He discovered the creative hub – founded in an old quarry and scrap metal yard in Temple Cloud by its ‘curator’, Mark Wilson – about five years ago through a friend. “My focus has changed a bit over the years, but first and foremost now are sustainability and environmental impact,” Si explains. “Being part of an industry that encourages consumerism, I feel it needs to be done in a responsible and environmental way. Fast fashion leaves a large carbon footprint, and it has a poor record of eroding human rights. Printing a garment that is sustainably made and well made means it is going to last a lot longer than fast fashion or something printed for promotional purposes that is worn once and ends up in landfill. When we relocated, we made a conscious decision not to stock any harmful chemicals or inks. We have some textile cleaner but, other than that, we just use eco soap.” One of Si’s first steps was to switch to water-based inks, with 90% coming from Permaset. “I had worked with plastisol inks as that was what everyone was using, but I then became more aware of environmental issues. There’s been a lot of advances in how inks are made and how sustainable ink is. The Permaset ranges that I use are nothing like the water-based ink I was using 20 years ago in my bedroom.” Water-based pointers He uses Aqua SuperCover for dark T-shirts, Aqua Permatone for light fabrics, and Permaprint for paper. There were a few challenges at first – such as misting, flooding and bruising – and Si points out that “having used plastisol for over a decade, switching to water- based was like learning to print again”. A particular challenge was dealing with the tiny amounts of moisture in blank garments, which was not a problem with plastisol. “There is often a miniscule amount of moisture even if it feels dry, and this essentially waters down the ink so it’s not as opaque,” Si explains. “In some cases, you need to put the T-shirts through the dryer first.” The shelf life of water-based inks is shorter, which is a separate challenge for a company committed to ‘zero waste’. “When I’m mixing an ink, I’m always thinking about the job in four weeks’ time that’s a similar Pantone so I’m not ending up with pots of ink sitting on a shelf for six months. That has been different, but it’s good as it’s made me more aware of how I use ink and how much it costs.” The studio was built by Flash, Rockaway Park’s carpenter The Ranar V-6600 rotary press