Artist and Author: SILKSCREENS |
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Technique I print all of my screens (serigraphs) by hand. They are built up one color at a time, average 25 colors (up to 115 colors), and take approximately three months to complete (an edition). Each desired shape (color) is outlined with glue on silk (polyester or nylon) which is stretched over a frame. When the glue has dried, ink is poured onto the screen and a squeegee is used to force ink through the unglued area of the screen onto a print below. After the color is printed on all the sheets of paper, the ink is cleaned up, the glue is dissolved and removed, and the next shape is prepared in the screen with glue. As paper is responsive to even slight changes in humidity, it difficult to do finely registered prints (such as these) because the paper tends to keep changing size. Traditionally printed editions are labor intensive, and are usually limited for sound technical reasons. Etching editions are limited because the printing plate wears down a little with each print that is pulled (so, there is a considerable visual difference between the first and last print in an edition). And silk screen editions are usually limited by the space the printers have on their drying racks (the inks have to dry thoroughly between printings). These silkscreen prints are all on high quality acid-free paper. Any acid in the paper would cause the colors and paper to degrade over time. |