WHAT IS SCREEN PRINTING?

Screen printing, also known as silkscreen printing or serigraphy, is a widely used technique that involves printing, often onto fabric or paper, by pressing ink through a stencilled mesh screen with a squeegee to imprint a design.

You’ve probably even used or worn something screen-printed at some point, as the process can be used to create artwork and posters on clothes, fabrics, canvases, plastic, glass, metal or wood with specialised inks. It is an efficient means of producing vivid, intense colour replications of a design multiple times on various garments or papers, and is great for creating vibrant designs in bulk by hand on T-shirts, tote bags, flags, banners, jackets, signs, scarves and more! 

HISTORY OF SCREEN PRINTING

Evidence of screen-printing techniques show early use in China around AD950 as a means of printing fabric with patterns, and centuries later in Japan to add ink designs to paper with a mesh screen made from hair with a stiff brush. It was slowly adopted throughout Europe in the 18^th century in commercial practice, transforming the advertising industry by offering a bridge between handcrafted designs and mass production with the re-use of a single stencil. Screen printing as an art form, dubbed “serigraphy”, became popular in the 1930s, and later found greater artistic notoriety with the Pop Art movement of the 1960s, with renowned artist Andy Warhol’s iconic Marilyn Monroe Diptych produced with screen printing methods.

SCREEN PRINTING VS DIGITAL PRINTING

How does silkscreen printing differ to digital printing?

Digital printing involves printing a design or computer-generated image or photograph direct to a garment or paper using a specialised digital printer, allowing complex multicoloured designs to be applied at once instead of in layers like a screen print would. Digital printing is a somewhat hands-free approach to printing, though with less intense colour pay-off and without textured effects.

SILK SCREEN PRINTING VS HEAT TRANSFER

How does silkscreen printing differ to printing via heat transfer?

Heat printing involves binding a design to fabric using a heat press, by printing a design onto transfer or sublimation paper (or a paper with a heat-reactive adhesive coating). Heat transfer is great for printing digital photographs or detailed designs (which a silkscreen transfer can’t do) or onto items like footwear that are difficult to manoeuvre and print with a silkscreen.

SCREEN PRINTING TOOLS

KITS

Art Shed has a variety of easy-to-use kits that contain all the tools you’ll need to create your very own screen-print!

Speedball Fabric Screenprinting Tool Kit

The Speedball Fabric Screenprinting Tool Kit comes with all the tools you need along with an instruction booklet to create your own fabric prints at home; all you need to add is ink!

Speedball Fabric Screenprinting Intermediate Kit

This Intermediate Screenprinting kit is the perfect introduction to beginner screen printers looking to advance their skills and dive deeper into the screenprinting process. Create permanent stencils with your own hand-drawn/painted design, drawing fluid and screen filler.

INK

Permaset Screen Printing Inks are an eco-friendly ink perfect for screen-printing on many fabrics. The colour range is vast and uses carefully selected pigments and the latest advances in polymer technology. Permaset screen printing inks and products are seen among artists and professionals in the printing trade as the premier product of choice for textile applications. As a water-based ink, Permaset Aqua does not contain PVC or Phthalates allowing you to clean up solvent-free using only water. Permaset Aqua does not contain ozone-depleting chemicals or any volatile solvents, it is environmentally friendly and has been thoroughly tested and meets Global Organic Textiles Standards. Safe to use on a variety of fabric and safe for skin, these screen-printing inks will see you screen-print your own fantastic textiles in no time.

A SILK SCREEN

A silkscreen is an essential tool in screenprinting and is constructed of a wooden frame with a fine mesh fabric that is stretched across. The Art Basics Silk Screen is a fantastic screenprinting tool and is manufactured in Australia to the highest quality using silk mesh (43t) and the timber frame made from Maple. The Silk Screen is used for printing onto fabric or paper by rolling the ink through the silk onto the surface beneath. The high-quality silk mesh can be re-stretched to recycle and become much more economical.

PHOTO EMULSION/ DESIGN STENCIL

Speedball Diazo Photo Emulsion Kit: The Speedball Diazo Photo Emulsion Kit contains all the basics needed to get started with photo emulsion screen-printing. The Kit comes with full instructions for printing using solvent or water-based inks. The Speedball Diazo Kit comes with photo emulsion, Photo Emulsion Sensitizer and Photo Emulsion Remover. A detailed instruction book is also included.

SQUEEGEE

To push the ink through the silkscreen, you’ll need a squeegee. A squeegee is a tool made of a rubber blade that is attached to a wood or plastic handle. A squeegee close to the size of the frame is best for ensuring even coverage, and a firmer rubber blade is best for detailed designs, while a softer blade will be best for printing onto fabric.

WASHING STATION

To re-use your silkscreen, you’ll need to remove the emulsion and ink in a washing station. For this, a large sink and a hose with the Speedball Photo Emulsion Remover 236ml should do the trick. The Speedball Photo Emulsion remover can be applied to an emulsion coated screen to reclaim the screen with minimal cleaning effort. The remover dissolves the emulsion after a series of applications and allows you to clean the emulsion from the screen.

SCREEN PRINTING PRESS

You can print by hand with just a squeegee and a silkscreen, but if you are creating a large number of prints, an automatic, semi-automatic or manual printing press is highly recommended.

HOW TO CREATE A SILKSCREEN PRINT

There are a few ways to produce a silkscreen print, with stencilling techniques ranging from using screen blockers like lacquer or glue to stencil the mesh, to using vinyl, adhesive film or masking tape to cover/block out areas of the mesh screen, to creating a stencil with a light-sensitive emulsion.

How to create a silkscreen print with a light reactive emulsion in 9 easy steps

1.  Create your design and print onto a transparent acetate film to create a stencil

2. Coat the silkscreen with a layer of light-reactive emulsion

3. Lay the acetate sheet with the design onto the screen, and expose it to very bright light. This will harden the emulsion, leaving the covered areas in a liquid state.

4. Carefully rinse away the unhardened emulsion and allow the screen to dry. Then the imprinted screen is ready for use.

5. Place your paper, fabric or garment flat onto a printing board or printing press.

6. Lower the screen onto the surface and add your ink to the top of the screen.

7. Use a squeegee to pull the ink across the screen. This will imprint the ink through the open, unhardened areas of the stencil.

8. Remove the silkscreen and allow the ink to cure.

9. Wash away the emulsion with an emulsion remover and allow to dry. Now the silkscreen can be re-used for more designs!

 PRINTING MULTICOLOUR DESIGNS

To create a multicoloured design, individual colours must be applied in layers with separate stencils, with one colour used per screen. Start by creating various acetate film stencils for each colour, and then coat the silkscreen with a layer of light-reactive emulsion. Expose the acetate sheets and silkscreens to bright light to harden and create the stencils. Rinse away the liquid emulsion. Then, line up each screen, and print each stencil onto a test sheet to ensure that the colours line up evenly. Then, you can push the ink one colour/stencil at a time onto your desired surface.

Got questions? Send us an email at customerservice@artshedonline.com.au and our friendly team of artists will do their best to support you!

Show us your screen-printing creation by tagging us on Instagram @artshedonline

Happy experimenting!