Screen printing

As promised, a photo blog of screen printing! For this design, I cut my template out of newsprint paper and acrylic paint

Seal the sides of the screen with gum-tape. Do this on both sides of the screen.

To apply the tape, cut the strip to the length you need and wet it. For this we just put a sponge into a small tube of water, and ran the tape along the sponge. But if you want to lick the tape, go ahead! Power to you! (But I really wouldn't advise it....)

One side taped up.....

The other side gets the same treatment.

This is the medium. In this studio we use this for sticking the template to the screen and we mix down the acrylic paint for printing with it.

Go along the design with the medium. No this dries quickly, so be as fast as you can. Get as many parts of the design border as you can. Also put a dab of medium on the corners of the page so it will stay on the screen.

You might be able to see the silk screen mesh in the picture above.

The template should be stuck to the side of the screen facing what you are printing on. It makes sense really, if it was stuck on the side of the screen facing you, the squeegee would wipe the template off your screen!

Pour some paint mixed with medium (half and half) along the top of the screen.

The screen should be raised above the page slightly, flood the screen. You dont need too much pressure  yet.

Bring the screen down to meet the page, and flood the screen again with more pressure.

Lift the screen and check your design.

*If the design bled out a bit, you might be flooding the screen to slowly*

Let each layer dry before adding the next.

Getting the next screen ready.

This is where I was after three layers.

I could have left it at this stage, so I decided to document it and then move on

The green used template and the red, just after flooding and printing. Newprint paper tends to fall apart easily, but if your quick, you will get more than just one print from it.

This is my finished print.

I based the design on usb and circuit board designs, which became people. It based on the idea of a group of people, but It like anything else, if you look at it too long you get other little narratives.....like are the figures on the right excluding the figure on the right?