I Heart Screenprinting

I took a screenprinting workshop at Blim this week and had a great time. Turns out I love screen printing. I had done a Gocco workshop at this space as well, so it's good to see the differences in the two approaches to printing. Some of the text in my image was too fine to register, but I was happy with the results.

We are exposing the screen to light for six minutes to burn the image into the photo-emulsion.

Next, we wash off the photo emulsion on both sides with a soft sponge. The guy who created this image above was really sweet. He had bought a t-shirt with this text in Morocco some years ago and now he was making a t-shirt for his brother's birthday as well as making a new t-shirt for himself. The instructor, who was filling in for the owner's maternity leave, was very funny and good-natured. She put on the obligatory 80's disco music to inspire us to greatness.

We chose our colors of water-based inks. I picked a dark teal and a gold. Once the screen had been dried by a big fan we placed it on top of our fabric and spread out a line of goopy ink on one edge. Then you use a tool to wipe the ink across the image, forcing it into the holes you've burnt into the screen. Peel off the printed fabric and voila!

Once the images were dry, we took them home along with the screens we had burned. These can be re-stretched over the frame and used again in open studio time at Blim. As I walked home under a full moon, I felt very productive and hopeful. It was great to meet a group of young adults in Vancouver who weren't members of the "too cool for school" group. Screen-printing geeks unite!


The fellow who created the "eat local" image was making beautiful linen napkins for a craft sale happening at the instructor's house near the end of the month. I will post the info later.