Screen Printing : Gareths Lesson

Due to personal illness I was unable to attend the original lesson that the screen printing took place in. Therefore I completed it at a later date. As I was present for the tutorials on how to do it, I arranged a time with one of our tutors and proceeded to do a tester on the tote bag. I had several ideas when it came to designs to screen print such as our group publishing logo, or perhaps a logo from within the story I have been illustrating. However I ended up settling on the little puppet creature in my story which goes by the name of Loic. I though this would be challenging in both design and cutting out the stencil. But also would be a cute design which someone might be interested in buying/ winning in a 20p per ticket raffle.

The process:
After designing the image I wanted in a black and white scale, I had to figure out how it would appear once inked through, what parts would need an extra line to show the outline, and what places needed to be blacked out. After going through this mental checklist I printed the design out on a thick piece of card and proceeded to cut out the selected areas with a craft Knife. After an hour or so of doing this, a couple new cuts on my hands, and only one or two mess-up's the stencil was ready. The next step was to choose a colour and set up the printing station. Laying the tote bag on  the table I placed the stencil in the centre of the bag and paper around its edges to ensure no over spill. After that I placed the screen mesh on top and poured the ink in a generous line across the top. Then whilst two others held the screen down I dragged down the squeegee, in an u down and left, right motion applying a fair amount of pressure. Once completed the screen was lifted, and paper removed so that the bag was left to dry. Although it was a lot of effort and a stencil which only has one use, it was a fun experience though not one i'll likely optionally use again.