Screen Printing

Nov 9, 2011 by blackbook

This weekend I took a screen printing course, in the hope to increase my creative talents. I have always had an interest in screen printing since college when I took an art class and I thought it would be something worth trying out again. I’m starting out on a beginner course which will take up a few Saturday afternoons and if I find that I am good at it I may start it as a full time hobby, depending on cost.

Screen-printing has evolved from the ancient Asian art of silk screening, so called because of the silk mesh to which the ink was applied in early versions of the process. Today the mesh may be made from stainless steel, nylon or polyester. The serigraphs of American artist Andy Warhol exemplified this technique in the 1960s, most notably in his portraits of Marilyn Monroe.
The screening process works as follows:

Once your design proof is approved, it is printed on transfer paper.

The mesh screens are coated with a photosensitive emulsion and allowed to dry, one for each colour in the design.

Your design is placed on each screen and exposed on a light table to burn in the image.

The screens are pressure washed to remove the emulsion around the image.

Each screen is blocked and taped for the particular colour desired.

A roller or squeegee is used to apply ink of the required colour over the mesh so that it penetrates the unblocked portion of the design.

The ink is ‘flashed’ or dried between each layer.