Title

The silkscreen process ... and its possibilities as a fine art medium.

Author

Sumner, Alan.

Source

Genre: The Victorian Art Society Journal. Melbourne: the society,

Details

volume 1, number 2. 1946.

Publication date

1946

Type

Essay/article

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

THE SILK SCREEN PROCESS
….. and its possibilities as a fine art medium

By ALAN SUMNER

Stencilling evolved in ancient times as a method of reproducing flat patterns, and was taken to a high degree of perfection by medieval Japanese artists.

Complicated and exquisite stencils were cut into specially waxed duplicate sheets of paper by these Oriental masters. The parts to be printed were lifted out and the remaining loose bits and pieces kept in place by countless strands of very fine hair or silk glued across the back of the whole design. The stencil was placed on the material to be printed and dyes or inks applied with a pad.

The Silk Screen process – as we knot it – is a modification of the principles used by these early craftsmen.

Today, a fine, machine made silk mesh, stretched over a frame of wood, is provided first, and the stencil adhered to it.

Although there are other ways of making a stencil, the paper method seems to be the least complicated and the one most generally used. The paper is specially prepared and is actually two sheets of thin strong paper waxed together, face to face. One side of this double sheet is then coated fairly thickly with shellac. The design is cut into the shellac through to the wax beneath the sheets, leaving the backing or underneath sheet untouched. The parts of the design to be printed are lifted out with the point of the knife, and the remaining parts held in their positions by the waxed backing sheet. This shellac cut-out is then applied in correct register to the underside of the stretched silk and adhered to it with pressure from a warm flat iron. The waxed backing sheet is easily pulled away, and, after any necessary hand touching up, the screen is ready for a printing – or run.

A rubber squeegee is used to force the prepared paint through the open parts of the mesh. In multi-coloured printing this procedure is repeated over and over again – once for each colour in the print.

I do not know when the first modern silk screen was used, or by whom, but one Samuel Simon of Manchester was granted a Silk Screen process patent in England in 1907, so that the process is not so very old.

It was not long before the commercial world grabbed at the idea, and as advertising in particular grew, so the uses of silk screen increased, often with poverty stricken results, as is well known. Soon, as well as advertising matter, practically everything was silk screened – from toddlers’ slippers to patterns on m’lady’s wardrobe.

Oddly enough the silk screen process was not used as a fine art medium apparently until about 1939. Since then several Canadian and American artists have worked in the medium.

The process is particularly popular in the schools in these countries. Selected artists are commissioned to paint simple pictures specially for educational purposes. Copies of these are silk screened in large numbers and dispersed by educational bodies throughout the various centres. Examples I have seen of such prints are quite large and I think very suitable for child and adult education in appreciation of Art.

Much use could be made of the medium in our own schools – especially in those districts where no other facilities are provided for the pupils to see original, or good copies of works of Art. Of course, to ensure success, much care would be needed in selecting artists who are capable of designing their pictures. The danger is that the silk screen process may be over-commercialised, with the inevitable result that its products will take on a character completely foreign to the best traditions of a fine art medium.

[Genre; The Victorian Art Society Journal (Melbourne), vol.1, no.2. 1946.