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Silk Screens
A screen is made of a piece of porous, finely woven fabric (originally silk, but typically made of polyester or nylon since the 1940s) stretched over an aluminum or wood frame. Once the screens are made, we coat them with a light sensitive emulsion and then let them dry in a dark area overnight. Once the emulsion has dried, the screen is taken to an exposure unit along with the film positive that will go onto that screen. The film positive is taped backwards onto the center of the screen and is then exposed to light for a short period of time in the vacuum exposure unit. The film positive that we taped onto the back of the screen will prevent the screen from being exposed to light in the dark areas. The light will still pass through the film positive in the light areas and will harden the emulsion. We then take the screen to a wash basin and will wash out the screen. The emulsion that was covered by the film positive will not have hardened and will wash out fairly easily. Once dry, our screen is now ready to be prepped and used for printing.
Photograph of silk screens below.
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