Experience: Workshop 8

Screen Printing with paper stencils.

This workshop was an advanced course, only attended by people with prior experience with screen printing.

I lost my notes so this will be written by memory, if I find my notebook I will update this post.

This technique is usually used to create prints that are more experimental and to be played with.

The technician told us how to create stencils:

Using newspaper sheets could create stencils, cutting could be done by anything.: cutting knifes, scissors and ripping paper, the last mentioned is also related to the grain in the paper, as going against the grain it will never tear straight.

Mine:

I forgot to take a picture before I placed them on the table unfortunately.

The ink density:

The technician explained to us that for this type of prints it is better to get semi transparent inks, so we can build up on the layers.

Some techniques:

Salt and pepper, which are tiny paper sprinkles we can cut out and toss on the page.

Mono Printing: with a piece of cardboard we can place an ulterior colour on the screen directly before flooding the screen, then print it.

Water effect: which is spraying water on the inside of the screen before flooding it, then print it.

Marking on paper: To make things more interesting the technician said that we could make signs with whatever we had and it will add to the composure.

What we did:

The first step for me was to make sure the screen was well secured to the table, then came the registration of the paper, we used already printed copies of someone else’s work so we cautiously took measurements of where more or less the printing area was. Then place it under the screen and register it and made sure the lay stops have been put in correctly, using the paper just measured we placed the signs where they were.

The next step was to cut out our shapes for the first colour. Place it on the paper on the table and make sure that is was where the print is going to be. Then print so the ink will make the stencil to be stuck on the screen.

We printed our first colours:

The next thing we did was to create new stencils where we had to choose our next colour. I messed up here, I tried to make my next ink semi transparent but I failed. I ended up with a dark purple that looks black, but I still had my fun with it.

Experience:

I loved this workshop, I am surprised to see myself enjoying everything about screen printing like I am. I honestly thought it would get boring after a while as I did screen printing several times in college and I did not enjoy it much. The best thing about this workshop is how experimental it was, and how the technician was welcoming us to just turn up, tell them our intention and have at it. I do only have one reservation about this: I do not have a lot of strength so pushing the ink in was hard, but I also noticed that I work much better if the image is small, I believe I have to consider this when I will eventually decide what to do next.