Screen Printing

Screen printing is the process of "burning" an image to a silk screen, which can then be transferred to fabric or paper.  We created our own silk screens with scrap wood and purchased silk screening to stretch on the wooden frame.  The silk is stretched evenly to create a flat, taught surface on which we can burn our images.  The screen is sealed to the wood with duct tape to enhance it's durability as it will be washed many times.  In order for the screen printing process to work properly, we need a darkroom, or an area that will be safe for light-sensitive materials.  In this darkroom, we coat the screen with photo emulsion using a squeegee.  Now we can let the photo emulsion dry and prepare the images.  The images need to be copied to transparencies so that only your image will be transferred to the screen.  When the photo emulsion is dry, we can set up the images on the screen in the darkroom because the photo emulsion is always light sensitive.  A sheet of glass is then placed over the images to hold them tight to the screen and we turn on our light in our exposure unit, which shines an even light on the entire screen.  This causes your images to "burn" into the screen. After the images are burned, the photo emulsion is washed off in a sink or area that is accessible to water and your images will appear.  The photo emulsion is still light sensitive, so if you can't rinse the screen in the dark room, it must be done quickly while exposed to any light.  Once the emulsion is rinsed out and the screen is dry, you can print on fabric or paper using the same kind of squeegee technique that we used to get the photo emulsion onto the screen.