Screen Printing with League of NH Craftsmen

Elizabeth and her sister, Becky, took a class at the Center Sandwich League of NH Craftsmen shop last week and learned a lot about screen printing an image.  The League is a group of juried artists who sell in dedicated shops all over the state.  Their work is beautiful and of the highest quality.  Our class was with  Master Printmaker, William Mitchell who was also a master teacher.  Please check out his website at the link and take a look at his beautiful prints.

Bill introduced us to the screen and drew his design directly on the polyester sheer fabric with a dull pencil.

He had each class member draw a block on his demonstration screen, then we filled it in with the screen drawing fluid using a small paintbrush.  This would be the design we would see when printed.

Once drawn he advised us to hold the screen up to the light to be sure the design was filled completely as any areas that might be too thin wouldn't make for a good result.

Next we learned how to squeegee on the screen filler which would block out all the background areas. He used a piece of cardstock as his squeegee for this part of the process, instead of the large rubber squeegee.

Here is the demonstration screen with the blue areas being the design and the red areas the background where no paint should go through the screen.

Elizabeth's sister, Becky, decided to draw a variation of a Zentangle design she once did. It is reminiscent of a fern unfurling. 

Elizabeth drew a modernized version of a flower.

Once each step was dry, Bill showed us how to remove the blue ink, leaving only the red ink in the screen.  Remember that where the blue ink was is going to be the print.

Bill had a great clothesline for hanging pieces without having them touch each other.  Straws on the line kept the paper from touching as the clothespins were evenly spaced.

These are Becky's designs after being screened on paper and hung on the line to dry.  This class was a one color process but we hope to take a class in the future where we could learn to make images with more than one color.

This is the final print that Becky made.

This is the final print from Elizabeth's screen.  It is printed on Pacon 80 weight paper from Staples.