Silk is used in screenprinting because of its fine weave and porous surface.
Silkscreen printing is a technique that gained popularity in the United States in the 20th century. Fine artists, sign makers, T-shirt printers and the textile industry use this technique to produce clean, vibrant prints. Silkscreen printing is done with a variety of techniques and provides a way to produce multiple prints.
History
Silkscreen printing, a technique that was derived from the use of stencils, began in the early 1900s in the United States. It was a popular technique with sign makers. The technique allowed signs to be printed faster than if they were done by hand and to also reproduce multiple copies of the same design without much variation. The technique began to catch on in the textile industry in the early 1920s. According to a book by Mathilda and James Schwalbach, in the 1930s different fine artists began to experiment with the technique and screenprinting became popular among contemporary artists including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.
Functions
Silkscreen printing is most commonly used for T-shirt printing. Silkscreened T-shirts were made popular by musical bands that printed their logos on shirts to advertise themselves. The technique is used to make art prints in a series, and although industrial screenprinting machines are now in use, many artists still make silkscreen prints by hand. Silkscreening is also still used by some textile companies that find they can produce brighter and bolder colors in fabrics with the technique, according to "The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art."
Screen
The screen used for silkscreen printing is a simple frame made from rigid, knot-free wood that is covered with silk that has been stretched and secured down. The tacks or staples holding the silk must be flush with the frame so as not to allow any ink to bleed through the sides. Silk is porous and has a very fine weave. Some people prefer to use a polyester mesh rather than silk because of its strength and durability.
Image Burning
The most effective silkscreen technique uses a film positive of the design to be printed. The screen is covered with screen filler and dried before placing the film positive on the screen. The screen, along with the positive, is placed on an ultraviolet light table that burns the image into the screen. After the screen is rinsed, only the design remains with open mesh. Paper or other materials are placed under the screen and, using a squeegee, ink is pushed across the screen and pushes through the design.
Hand Painted
Designs can also be painted onto a screen with artist's drawing fluid. After the ink dries, screen filler is placed over the entire drawing with a squeegee and rinsed off after it dries. The painted design is what will be left behind when using paints or silkscreen inks to print. Both image-burned and hand-painted screens can only be used for a single color. To add more dimensions to a silkscreen print, other screens are made to add more detail and color over top of the original print, according to the "Start," the Smithsonian studio arts blog.
