Want to know a little about silkscreening? I started teaching myself this summer - well actually I made t-shirts on two occasions for students in the past with a very basic paper stencil one time and the directions from the kit the second time. I've been wanting to learn for quite a few years as a means of making cards like some I'd seen and loved. I really love the texture of the ink on the paper when you silk screen... Anyway, this summer I expanded my knowledge considerably primary via websites and blogs. It's amazing what's out there! I discovered a site called instructables, and the amazing thing is that there are instructions on how to do some pretty random things -- like building batteries out of mini altoid cans ... or maybe they were flashlights?
So, I took over the kitchen to make cards that I intended to sell at a bazaar at church. I sold some, but I have a whole lot more left! Here are little glimpses into the process:
The basic concept of silkscreening is that you block out some areas of the fabric that's stretched across a frame and use a squeegee to force ink through the open areas. There are a variety of ways to block out parts of the screen. The traditional way involves using an exacto knife to cut out this masking film that is adhered to the screen -- but I would have needed nasty chemicals that weren't really suitable for kitchen sink use. :) I used a readily accessible process with a light sensitive chemical that gets spread across the screen. I photocopied my drawing (I made all my own drawings) onto a transparency, taped it onto the screen, put a piece of glass on top of it and set it out in the sun. The bright green chemical turns blue-green when it has hardened from the light. I took the screen inside at this point and washed out the areas that had been blocked out, leaving the clear/white areas where the ink will pass through.
(the other colors you see on the bottom screen are just stains from ink pigments -- and the garden tools where just holding the fabric down in the breeze)
So then there's this whole process of attaching the screen with hinges to a board and lining up the paper and design. The red tabs make sure that every piece of paper I print on is in the same spot.
The screen goes down over the paper with the ink spread across it. (there's clear tape over the second design on the screen that I'm not printing at the moment), and the big squeegee you see propped on the sink is dragged across the ink.
And this is the result. (It's just the background color of one of the designs)
And this is what the process does to our kitchen!
This is that particular design printed in all three colors.
