What is a screenprint?
Screenprinting is a process where ink is forced through a mesh screen onto a surface. Think of it like a fancy stencil. Which makes certain areas of the screen impervious to printing ink blocking the printing ink from passing through the screen. The ink that passes through forms the now printed image.
What is a printing screen?
A printing screen consists of a fine mesh fabric that is tightly stretched and attached to a metal or wooden frame. Traditionally these screens were made of silk, but today they are most often made of synthetic materials using names, I am unable to pronounce.
How do you make the stencil?
Stencils—can be made by composing a wide variety of materials, including fabric, greasy paint, or a design on a transparency which then are applied to the screen from above. This can be accomplished in a few different ways: placing them directly onto the surface of the screen, painting them onto the screen, or by transferring a design onto the screen using a photo-sensitive emulsion. The method I used is the third using a film for each color and burning it onto a screen that has a photo-sensitive emulsion applied to it. Below is what it looks like when I coat the screen with the emulsion.
After the emulsion dries, I place the transparent film that has my design onto the screen.
The screen is then placed in an exposure unit that emits ultraviolet (UV) light. Due to the film being photo-sensitive, when the UV light hits it everything that is not blocked out by the design hardens. Allowing for the emulsion that was blocked by the design to be washed away with water.
Making the print.
Once the screen has dried and the design has transferred clearly. The screen is placed in the press. Ink is applied along the top of the inside of the screen and then pulled evenly across the image using a squeegee, flooding the screen with ink.
A sheet of paper is then placed under the screen, and with another pass of the squeegee the ink is pushed through those areas of the screen that are not blocked by the stencil. And there you have it an image on a piece of paper!
Now, if your design requires more than one color, you’ll have to repeat the process using a different stencil/screen for each color. I know right, this is a lot of work! And to keep the colors of the design aligned, you have to take precautionary measures to ensure the proper registration of the sheet of paper and the screen. But sometimes the paper just doesn’t want to cooperate and you are left with prints that just don’t line up. It’s annoying, but this is also what makes a screen print fun!
To see some of my screen prints check out my work here.