Media of the Month

Screenprinting – update

Although I confess to being a scattergun, and like to try most things I have to concede defeat on screenprinting. Try as I might I couldn’t get the stencils, the squeegee and the screen to work well together. I resorted to abandoning the screen, trying tracing paper, card, cartridge paper, different inks, different squeegees and ended up painting with a squeegee instead. The ink refused to stay above the stencil including the plastic ones I made from the pack supplied, the paper stuck to the printed area and torn off and even masking tape did much the same.

I think until I find a short course on screenprinting my kit will be packed away to gather dust. It’s such a shame given my memories of a childhood lesson in school. It seemed so simple then but I distinctly remember the image or stencil being glued to the screen while on YouTube there are oodles of examples of not having to. I have visions of posters and t-shirts, tea towels and cushion covers but alas it was not to be. Time to move on to intaglio and drypoint etching before the month is out.