Screen Print or Serigraph


Qairuliit Pitsiulak, Tim, 2009, CD 2009-035, Photo © CMC

Screen print, or serigraph, is much like regular stencil, but instead of using a stiff stencil paper cut with holes in the desired shapes, the printmaker uses a porous screen stretched over a frame (at one time this porous screen was made of silk). To achieve the desired openings, the printmaker applies a resist paste onto the screen. When it dries, this resist paste hardens into a stencil and blocks the passage of ink through the screen. Next the prepared screen is laid upon a fresh sheet of paper and thick ink is applied to the back of the screen. Using a rubber roller or squeegee, the printmaker pushes the ink through the openings in the screen and onto the paper.

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