Getting Serious

At some point, painting every garment by hand started to feel limiting.

I loved what I was making, but the process was slow. Each piece took a long time, and doing the same motions over and over started to feel repetitive. I knew I wanted to keep going — I just wanted to do it differently. I wanted to print. And I wanted to do it myself.

The timing worked out. During my Erasmus exchange in Barcelona in 2023, I was introduced to silk-screen printing. It clicked immediately. We had proper equipment and teachers to guide us through it — but the seed was planted. I knew I wanted to bring it home with me somehow.

Doing it on my own though was a different story. No machines, no teachers, no shortcuts. Just me figuring it out from scratch.

That's where a culture and sports grant from my municipality came in. My mum had encouraged me to apply, and a few family members and friends nominated me. I wrote about what I wanted to create and why — and I was selected. It was a small but significant moment. Someone outside my immediate circle believed this was worth investing in.

It took a little while to get moving. I was still travelling, still settling back in. But when I got home, I started developing my designs more seriously and slowly built up the equipment I needed.

Linocut came later, almost by accident. I'd tried it back in middle school art class and always liked it — there's something very handcrafted and honest about carving an image out by hand. It's less complex than silk-screen, which makes it perfect for smaller designs or pieces where I want a rawer, more tactile feel.

Different methods, same intention — and I'm still learning.