Screen Printing

Way back in college I took silk screen printing. Now it’s called screen printing (silk is no longer used for the screens), and I’m once again taking a class. It’s so much fun! I’m printing onto fabric so I can use my images for art quilts. My class is taught by Abby Ryder, at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, in Reading, PA.
First I sketched a cat, and drew the image three times onto a film, called matte Dura-lar. Each drawing represents one color that, overlayed, will create the full image.
Then the drawings are placed on a vacuum table with a glass bottom, and lightly taped down. The emulsion-coated screen is placed on top, and the vacuum applied so that it’s all nice and tight.
The whole table is tipped up and exposed to light, through the glass bottom. The light exposure is carefully timed, and when released, the screen is ready to be rinsed.  This releases the emulsion from the “positive” areas of the image .
Here is the exposure process, and my final little cat print. On the right are the first two 5 x 7″ art quilts. And finally a cat quilt in progress.