BLOG - silk screening

I love the trips Georgia and I get to take to our craftsmen and vendors. Seeing how things are made is such a treat and reminds me that everything is not electronic these days. Yesterday we visited a screen printer that we are thinking of using. It was amazing to see the process from beginning to end. We thought we would share a bit of this with you. 

The above photos show the printing of wallpaper. The fumes were quite strong!!  The repeats are layed down on intervals. The printing skips a repeat and then the printer goes back and fills this in after the ink from the first printing has dried. This prevents the ink from bleeding along the edge of the repeats.

Old screens are cured in a turquoise/blue paint before they are used. The result is really something beautiful.  Seeing all the screens was fun as we were able to recognize some of our favorite prints!

The two photos below show the beginning of the process or the making of the screen.

When it comes to stripes, it is necessary to use a rotary. This ensures that the stripes line up and there are no broken lines.