Ser-i-gra-phy

Ser-i-gra-phy
-noun
a print made by the silkscreen process

The first studio tour is of the Lithography/Serigraphy studio. I am taking this class right now, and I love, love, LOVE it. I see all of these wonderful, gorgeous screen printed/silkscreened prints all over Etsy, and now I know how they do it!

First things first: you need a screen...





... and a base.


The screen goes on the base. It's what you push the ink through to create the print on your paper that is under the screen. The ink is water-based, so it's a lot like acrylic paint. It dries super-fast, and all of the colors are really opaque, which means that if I print white on top of, say, dark blue, it will still pretty much show up white with very little color showing through. It does NOT, however, wash out of your clothes. :( Bad news bears.

And speaking of ink... ahhh. This is color inspiration overload!






Here's a close-up of a done print. You can really see all the layers of color on this one.


Then, after you've completely finished the print, you have to wash out the screen with a pressure washer. It's loud, and I always use the noise blockers over my ears. I don't want to go deaf!




Surprisingly, there is a lot of time spent on the computer for this class. I choose to make my designs in Photoshop/Illustrator, and then I have to separate out each individual color before I make black and white prints to take to my screen. When I first signed up for this class, I didn't think I'd really be able to use my computer at all, but it has been my trusty sidekick. Not that I mind too much: I am a designer, after all. :P

Hope you enjoyed this studio tour! Let me know if you have any burning questions that you'd like answered!