Screen printing.

Screen printing is a form of printmaking that dates back to 1907. Although having origins in Japanese stencilling, patents were taking out by a printer in Manchester at the beginning of the twentieth century, which is where the process of screen printing we are familiar with today is more likely to have begun.

It was during the First World War that screen printing flourished as an industrial printing process, used for printing flags, posters and labelling for shop products. Companies were able to produce multiple low cost and sharp-edged images quickly and easily. Around the same time, photographic silk screening was invented, changing the face of screen printing.

During the sixties photographic silk screening was made famous through the pop art movement. Used by artists such as Hamilton and Rauschenberg, but more famously; Andy Warhol. Warhol used the process of screen printing to symbolize mass consumerism. He produced masses of images in what was known as “The Factory”.

Green Coca-Cola Bottle, 1962.

Today, screen printing is a media used in both commercial imagery as well as fine arts. The versatility of screen printing means it can be found everywhere from t-shirts to record covers to car stickers.

Although there have been developments and improvements in the inks, chemicals and presses used in the printing process, and the involvement of computer technology commenced as of the eighties, the screen printing process has remained generally unchanged.

To produce a screen print, a screen is needed in place of a printing plate used in other forms of printing. The screen is comprised of a (usually) wooden frame with a nylon mesh stretched over it. The material desired to be printed on is positioned underneath the screen, usually on a flat surface when printing onto paper), with a paper stencil sandwiched between the two. The stencil blocks any ink from the surface of the material. Ink is applied to the top side of the screen and pulled over the screen and though the small holes in the mesh, onto the surface of the material underneath, using a squeegee; a flexible thick rubber blade with a metal or wooden handle across the top. The process using the squeegee can be repeated to ensure all the desired areas are covered with ink.

Creating a photographic screen print involves first coating the mesh in light sensitive emulsion or film and being left to dry. A film positive of the image or text wished to be printed is positioned under the mesh screen and exposed to ultra violet light. This hardens the areas of emulsion that were exposed to light, and blocks the holes in the mesh, preventing ink from passing through onto the material underneath. The screen is washed with a water jet, removing any emulsion which has not been exposed to the light and hardened. The screen now acts like a self contained stencil and the same printing process using a squeegee can be applied to create multiple images with a higher level of detail. It is possible for screens to be used aging for tens of thousands of prints, although if desired, the negative image exposed onto the screen can be removed using screen cleaners in the form of powders, liquids and gels, then rinsed thoroughly with a pressure washer.