We were introduced to a technique called screen or silk printing today.
What is Screen/silk Printing?
Screen or silk printing is a printing technique where a mesh (90 thread count ) is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made sealed from the ink by a blocking stencil. A squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh crevices with ink. A reverse stroke then causes the screen to touch the surface momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the surface and be pulled out of the mesh crevices as the screen springs back after the squeegee has passed.
The Process
We planned ideas for our stencils. I chose to do a stencil based on the marbled ink patterns I had created. The way they twisted, turned and floated caught my eye. The idea was to create a continuous pattern of chaos by printing one on top of the other. We cut these out of newsprint, however next time I would use a different type of paper or card, something thicker as I found that with the continuous printing, the newsprint started to disintergrate.
The next step was the put feet onto the screen to allow for a space and a spring back between the print and the mesh screen. The stencil is then placed underneath the screen and the paper that is being printed onto underneath that.
I chose a teal colour to mix with a tiny bit of white to make it lighter and then with acrylic painting medium (ratio 50:50 medium to paint) to the paint which slows down on-screen drying of acrylic colour, reducing the risk of screen blocking and making it easier to wash out. Making sure there are no streaks of medium left after mixing. We were shown a technique of using watercolour pencils to draw straight onto the screen, however I chose not to use this method as I preferred the effect of having the block colour.
The screen is lifted and propped up in order for flooding with medium, on its own, by placing a tiny spread of it along the top of the screen and then dragging the squeegee down to flood the screen. Paint is then applied to the top end of the screen and flooded again using 1 stroke with the squeegee. The screen is lowered down onto the printing space and a squeegee is used again to pull the paint along the full length of the screen. This presses the paint through the open areas of the stencil, imprinting the design onto the paper underneath.
Pointers to remember:
- Always flood the screen before the next use to stop the acrylic drying up.
- Always remember to prop up your screen between applying paint.
My Attempt
What worked well:
- The colour
- The repeated pattern to create chaos, I think I achieved this well.
Even Better if:
- Next time I would like to attempt using the watercolour pencils to see what effects they give.
- Use thicker paper, instead of newsprint as the stencil. As you can see from the pictures, the first one I did worked quite well, the second one started to lose some of the stencil and turned out to be block colour and the last one there was even more block colour.
- Mix up the paint, maybe trying a two or three tone combination of purple and teal, or yellow and orange.
- Create a different design that isn't as intricate and thin in places as again, the paper started to disintegrate due to the paint and medium passing through it so often.
- In terms of my inside outside project, it doesn't relate at all. In fact I wasn't thinking about that.
- Some ideas I have had in relation to my project since looking back at this process are using the design from the Dada collage I developed of the clouds, rain, hot air balloon and the medication. Possibly printing a T-shirt with it to see how this would look. Or creating a design to challenge the stigma around mental health and adding this to a T-shirt or poster.
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