Saturday 18th October, 12–2
Screen printing is a form of stencilling where a paper stencil is attached to a wooden or aluminium frame which has a fine mesh tightly stretched over it. Ink is pushed through the mesh using a squeegee leaving an impression of the stencil on the fabric, card or paper placed under the screen.
Originally the mesh was made from fine silk and the process was called silkscreen printing. Today cheaper synthetic meshes are used.
As producers of silk China and Japan developed the printing process to mass produce designs, mainly for room divider screens. The Arts and Crafts movement, particularly William Morris, used the process to produce his patterned wallpaper and textile designs. Andy Warhol used it extensively for many of his prints.
Today computers can be used to produce the cards, labels, wrapping paper, posters and leaflets that were made by screen printing but nothing can replicate the excitement of seeing rich colours magically appear on the paper (substrate) placed under a stencil that you have designed and made.
Stencils can be made using many processes, photo stencils being the preferred option, but because of time and space, not to mention ‘small sinks’, on the Open Day we will be using A4 screens and paper stencils made from freezer paper.
The inks we will be using come from North Wales and are made using organic materials such as sheep’s wool and kelp and most importantly cleaned with water.
Screen printing is a messy process so bring an apron or old shirt to protect your clothes and most importantly ideas about what you want to print, making sure that your design can be easily cut out.
As it’s an open day, Machspace will be open to the public, and we invite you to read our open day rules before attending.
It’s pay-as-you-feel, so anyone can attend regardless of income, and donations are very welcome. There will also be pay-as-you-feel refreshments.
You may also like the following events from Gofod Gwneud Machynlleth Makerspace:
Also check out other
Arts events in Machynlleth,
Craft events in Machynlleth.
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