Finished Screen Print

This was the last week of my screen printing course and I am relatively happy with my final print although there are several improvements that I could have made.The misalignment of the three screens (mainly because the paper edges were not square has resulted in white edges on the trunk and movement in the branches both of which I like. The main problem is the overlapping of the colours at the edges of the images; this will make mounting a bit difficult as I would have liked to have left white round the print but may have to bring the mount right in.

More on the screen printing

Again a couple of weeks has passed on the screen printing, so I am recording details of the various stages to help future attemps.

The screen is attached to a small printing set up (the paper on the underside of the screen was only needed as this screen extended further than the other two separations). When the screen is lowered, it activates a vacuum pump that ensures contact between screen and paper during printing. The area of the vacuum bed that is not cover by the screen print is masked off with newsprint. Registration marks are placed on the bed so that each piece of paper is identically placed (nb make sure paper has exact corners). The first separation is then printed - I chose a transparent mid blue for the first screen. The ink is dragged across the screen by pulling the squeegee at 45 degrees to the screen. The screen is lifted and then the print area is flooded with ink by pushing the squeegee back.

To print the subsequent screens, it is necessary to align the registration marks correctly. To do this, tape down a piece of clean film over one of the orginal prints and print onto this. Then move paper around under the acetate till it is exactly in register and place the registration marks. Remove acetate.

I printed the second screen first all over with a transparent dark blue. Some work was then done with the blue filler to cover the nearest tree trunks and branches and with bleach to open up the sky ares. I then chose a transparent very diluted black (using 1 to 5 parts of black to extender) for the sky area (masked off the trees) and a more opaque grey (diluted white with extender) for the back trees and tops of branches.

All it needs now is the third (black separation) screen.

Printing Notes

A further couple of weeks have passed since I last described the stages in producing a screen print from my Winslow Edge image. I am posting a few notes to help me remember so I can repeat the stages later.

Place the film with emulsion side against the backing sheet of the film in a vacuum frame. The positive is between light source and film so exposure is through backing sheet of film.
The mid tone and black were exposed for 1.75 min and the backgroung 3.5 mins 1000 watt UV lamp.

The Film was developed in tray of 1.5% hydrogen peroxide (1 to 11 of St B stock) for 1 min (or 90 secs) shiny side down.
Wash out unwanted emulsion with hand hot water (?41-43C) (shiny side down)
Placed washed film down with matt side onto the screen. Dry and press flat with newsprint and roller.

Dry and use blue masking fluid to cover area around the emulsion. When dry remove backing from film. Attach the screen to the press, put on registration markers for the paper and cover all rest of vacuum bed with newsprint. Ready to spread the ink and start printing.

Colour idea for print

I do not know if a grey ink can be used in silk screen printing but I like this mockup. I have not been able to find two colours that I like together so it may have to be light blue for background with darker blue for midtones.

More on the printing

These notes are to remind me next time what I did to make the silk screens for printing from a photograph. Instead of using the posterisations as tone separations, which was my original thought, I made three separate separations for the background, midtones and black areas using colour range. They were adjusted to the required size (A3) at 600 dpi, gray scale and bitmap and printed out onto digital transfer film on an Epson 7600 printer.

I then added some texture in the white area of the midtone positive by applying waste black toner suspended in water. As it dried, I moved the film around to create interesting patterns.

The next stage will be to make photographic negatives from these positives which will be applied to the silk screens.

Printing Presses

Three images of the beautiful presses at St Barnabas Press.The gold decorated one is dated 1854, many are much older.