Early in this century, commercial screen printing developed rapidly. Today, everything from grocery store signs and shampoo bottles to china and printed circuit boards can be screen printed.

During the depression, in the 1930’s the government financed Federal Art Project (part of the WPA) encouraged the development of silk screen printing partly to create "original art for the masses". Many emerging and recognized artists of the time responded by creating "serigraphs". This was a name for fine art silk screen prints as opposed to commercial work. The WPA artists investigated creative methods of making stencils directly on the screen. They used blockouts and resists, cut paper and cut film stencils as well as simple photo silk screens. Ever since the creation of the National Serigraph Society in 1940, screen printing has been recognized as a fine art medium.

Many prints of the late thirties and early forties have a socialistic message in their images of typical scenes from life. In the fifties Abstract Expressionism was the all the rage and screen printing was an ideal method of expression. Pop Art arrived in the sixties and again screen printing was used extensively by artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Litchenstein and Edward Ruscha. Then came Op Art and Josef Albers who found screen printing to be the perfect media. Later Robert Rauchenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and others would combine screen prints with painting to create original works.

Screen printing has continued to develop. The commercial market has encouraged so much new technology that it is impossible for the average print maker to know all that is available. The term "Serigraph" is now obsolete. Silk, as in seri is no longer the screen fabric of choice. It has been replaced by polyester, nylon and stainless steel. The old oil based inks have almost been eliminated in this ecology minded society. Techniques for stencil making can involve expensive, high tech. equipment.

There are serious artists, who are using the new technology combined with the old method of working directly on the screen. They produce original art that has a character all it’s own. There is a controlled freshness in each color pressed onto the paper with the pull of the squeegee. The image may be painstakingly made on the screen, but it is spontaneous in the printing.

Thirty eight years ago when I moved to Western New York, I had an immediate impression of the strong character of the buildings and of the landscape in this area. After a few years of painting local scenes in oil and acrylic I began experimenting with screen printing to express what I was seeing. I found that breaking down my images into areas of flat color and value strengthened my work. My subjects are often historical architecture and figures as well as wild flowers and quilt patterns. The same basic technique is used for all.

The image will print as you design it, there is no reverse image as in other print media.

You can use photographs, old advertising art and book illustrations as well as your own original art work as subjects to print. The resulting screen prints on paper can be used as framed prints note cards, posters etc. Prints on fabric can be sewn into wearable art, quilts, pillows, tote bags and of course, you can print T-shirts.                                                          

The frame can be ready made, custom made or home made. There are many sources for ready made frames and screens. The common ready mades are of 2" x 2" lumber, I find them cumbersome to handle. As a result I have been using frames of my own design, made of 1" x 2" lumber. The important thing is to have a stable, rigid frame. For printing on paper, the frame can be hinged onto a printing bed with loose pin hinges. This is to permit the frame to be easily removed from the bed to be cleaned and to be replaced in the exact position for printing.

The screen printing fabric that I use is a fine mesh monofilament nylon (280 threads per inch) for very small detail. For general printing, I have been using a monofilament polyester (169 threads per inch). Either fabric is stretched tightly on the frame. I have had a number of screens professionally stretched and held onto the frame with epoxy glue. When I need an odd sized screen, or want to replace the fabric on a frame, I stretch the fabric by hand and staple it in place with light duty staples. I then varnish the frame and fabric over the staples, taking care not to get any varnish on the printing area of the screen.

Squeegees can be plastic or wooden handled. The wooden handled ones are sold by the inch. I often use a window cleaning squeegee for small work. The squeegee should be at least two inches wider than the image to be printed and at least two inches smaller than the inside if the frame.

Hunt Speedball Screen Drawing Fluid comes in an eight ounce jar. It is a blue, water soluble liquid that is used to paint the image to be printed directly on the screen.

Hunt Speedball Screen Filler comes in an eight ounce jar. It is a dark red, thick fluid used as the blockout on the screen.

Home made blockout is made by simmering "Future" acrylic floorwax in a pan on the stove until it thickens to a paintable consistency. I add a little red food coloring to make the acrylic blockout visible. Ammonia is the solvent for this.

Hunt Speedball Textile Screen Printing Ink comes in many colors plus a transparent acrylic extender base. These can be mixed to make any hue. I also use Hunt Speedball Acrylic Screen Printing Ink for work on paper. The textile ink will work on fabric or paper, but the acrylic ink cannot be used on fabrics that will be washed or dry cleaned. All of these inks are soluble in water until they dry.

Water color brushes that come to a good point are needed. Drawing pens with blunt points are useful.

Paper for printing can be vellum bristol or cover stock from an office supply store. There is an envelope available that fits an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet cut in half. This is very handy for greeting cards. Art papers, water color paper, drawing paper will all work. For professional work I use acid free, archival papers. Arches 88 is an unsized paper made for screen printing. Stonehenge is another 100% rag paper that works well. It comes in soft colors as well as white and is less expensive than Arches.

Fabric for printing should be light in color and have a smooth surface. A cotton/polyester blend is good. T shirts and sweat shirts should also be a blend.

Other items that you may use are:

Masking tape 3/4" is fine        Crayolas

You can work from your own sketch, photograph or a composite of pasted up images. The finished print will be the same size as whatever you are working from. From now on I will refer to this as the working drawing. If you use a photograph, get a good photocopy of it enlarged to the size of your finished print and keep the original handy to refer to.. You can use a copier to enlarge or reduce whatever images you want to use. Plan to have at least a one inch margin around your print. If your working drawing is 6 1/2" x 9" your print paper should be at least 8 1/2" x 11". If you plan an edition of prints, prepare a few extra sheets of print paper to allow for mistakes.

                  !st color -  2nd and 3rd colors -  First color printed over 2nd and 3rd 

This works well for an image that has strong lines and areas that enclose other colors. Make a stencil of the main design on one screen. With register guides in place print two copies of it. Clean the ink from the screen and set it aside. One of the prints can be hand colored with water color, crayons or whatever to show where the colors will go. With another screen hinged onto the same bed and with one of the prints in place make a stencil where you want another color. A new stencil is made and the edition is printed for each color. When all the additional colors have been printed use the original stencil to print on top of all the other colors.

You can combine methods of stencil making. A photographic stencil can be printed over a background made with drawing fluid and screen filler. Various techniques can be used in a single stencil.                                                                 

SIMPLE DIRECT PHOTOGRAPHIC STENCILS

"Clara and Arthur, 1913"

You will need a transparent positive of the image to be printed. Any black and white art work, lettering or high contrast photograph will work. Get a transparency made at any place that makes copies. When translated into direct screen prints photographs lose any gray areas. This creates a very strong image. Another way is to draw or letter on a sheet of acetate with a black permanent marker (Pilot, Sharpie, etc.) Dried pressed flowers, laces and other objects that will block the light can be used.

As a light source for exposure, I use a light box with three fluorescent tubes and a Plexiglas top. The transparent positive is placed on the light box so that the image looks the way it should when printed. Transparent tape can be used to hold it in place.

From now on all work is done under very subdued light or a darkroom safe light. Four parts of Speedball Photo Emulsion are put into a jar. Then one part of Sensitizer is added and mixed thoroughly with the emulsion. An even coat of the mixture is spread across the under side of the screen and the screen is quickly dried with a hair drier.

Place the coated screen, fabric side down, centered on the transparency on the light box. Place a black, soft pad inside the screen, over all and weigh it down (I use a bag of shot). This keeps the image and the screen in good contact. Turn on the light box for five minutes. Turn it off. Then take the screen to the sink and spray both sides with warm water.

Now you can put the lights back on. Keep spraying until the image appears on the screen. Hold the screen up to the light to see if the areas to be printed are open. When they are, the screen can be placed on a towel and blotted and the dried with a hair dryer and you are ready to print.

When you want to clean the image from the screen you should wet it with warm water and let sit to soften. Then with the screen down in a sink, pour household bleach directly on it. Let it stand for a few minutes and then spray with hot water.

Stencils made with Rubbings

Any textured surface can be used to create stencils that capture the look of the original surface. I often use antique, embossed book covers, dried flowers and leaves, ribbon and laces, coins and wood.

The screen is placed over the surface to be used. It is important to have a comfortable grip on the screen with one hand. Then with the other hand use a crayola crayon to make the rubbing directly on the screen. Don’t let the screen move, or you will have a double image.

The crayola will act as a blockout to the water base ink. The image will be the color of the paper and the area around it will be the color of the ink.

It is necessary to have a border of blockout around the rubbing. An open area on the screen can be made first and the rubbing can be done in it. To reverse the print - to print the image rather than the background - screen filler can be spread over all. When it is dry the crayola can be removed with paint thinner.

When I use antique books, I cover them tightly with saran wrap to keep the crayon from getting on them. Dried flowers and leaves should not be too dry and brittle as they would crumble when rubbed.