Silk Screen Printing Tips from Secondary School Teacher, Hannah Kennard
Hannah Kennard is an experienced secondary school teacher at Chesterton Community College, Cambridge and earlier this month, led an AccessArt workshop for adults and teenagers and shared some of her printmaking tips on how she facilitates printmaking with groups and in the classroom.
For more AccessArt resources on print making methods download a step-by-step, illustrated PDF Accessible Printmaking Techniques here.
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Carolyn
August 29, 2012 @ 3:56 pm
Very interested in trying this with students.
How do you wash your screens in the sink? Do you have a hose or can soaking work?
How many screen set-ups do you have in the class?
Thanks,
Carolyn
Sheila Ceccarelli
August 30, 2012 @ 1:16 pm
Hello Carolyn,
One tip is to set up two spaces; One for cutting the stencils set up with craft knives and cutting mats and the other set up with screens and paints mixed up and ready. Students who want to use the same colour can use the same screen – though you don’t want to use the screen too many times without washing it as the pores will get clogged up and once acrylic paint has dried can no longer be cleaned. We suggest approx one screen per group of two/three students – washing regularly.
To wash use warm water and washing up liquid and a soft sponge and gently wash with plenty of water. No need to use a hose though a big sink is useful! Dry with a hair dryer before reusing. Wash often and do not let acrylic paint dry out on the screen. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Bairbre Geraghty
October 1, 2012 @ 10:56 pm
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for the presentation it’s very clear. I’ve done some screen printing with students before. The biggest challenge I’ve found is the introduction of the second and third layers. Do you have any tips on registering the print so each layer lines up. I’d love to know if there is a simple fool proof way to do it.
Thanks
Sheila Ceccarelli
October 4, 2012 @ 9:25 am
Hello Bairbre, For second and third layers, Hannah Kennard suggests – ‘doing a number of photocopies of the intended image means that the layers will be in the same place. You can then masking tape on the screen where the corners of 1st layer should go and where the corners of the 2nd and 3rd layer should go’.
Hope that makes sense. We will try and do a post shortly to demonstrate this. Look out for it! Good luck! Best wishes, AccessArt team
Bairbre Geraghty
October 7, 2012 @ 1:58 pm
Thanks that’s great.
Stacey
February 10, 2013 @ 7:13 pm
I am a student from Heriot Watt/Scotland, in my final year as a Design for textiles student, I am currently doing a marketting plan for one of my courses and looked at doing an after school class with secondary students, and maybe looking into changing the ‘Art and Design’, school curriculum and intergrating both art and fashion and textiles courses together. However i am aware of budgetting cost.
How much per student would it cost for an after school class- to screen print? and what materials would be included in that price?
Do you know of anyone else that is doing a similar thing?
Do you have a marketting plan which you have already done- which would only be used of internal research for myself. I do not know where to start with this.
I had never heard of the acrylic mixed with the medium- very interesting.
Sheila Ceccarelli
February 14, 2013 @ 1:43 pm
Hi Stacey, Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this – I think that you can keep costs low by making your own screens -Would your D&T department be happy to help to whip up some wooden frames and then quite simply stretching silk over secured with heavy staples? If not you can buy silk screens for about £26 http://www.piscesart.co.uk/shops/piscesart/Products/PD1936521/Screen-Printing-Frame/
you will need approximately 1 screen per three students and be really, really careful to wash often and not let acrylic dry into the fabric pours which will ruin them.
Working in acrylics diluted 1 part acrylic to 1 part fabric medium is by far the cheapest approach – I bought a five lt bottle of fabric medium about 5 years ago and it’s still half full! If you have access to an education supplier you can buy five liters for about £26 but regular retailers your looking at about £45 – but it goes a long, long way! You can also limit the colour palette to a few acrylic colours if you have a small budget and can buy those in large pots as well.
Good luck with this all and please let us know how it goes!
More info here with our printmaking tips pdf
/pdfs/printmaking.pdf
Kelly Longman
September 9, 2015 @ 5:04 am
As a veteran of the textile printing industry (over 20 years of experience), I had a chuckle reading this page. Cute!