Silk Screen Printing (Made Easy!)

 Screen printing is a technique that uses a woven material and a stencil to make a print onto a surface; paper, t-shirt, stickers, vinyl, wood, etc. It is a printing method that is very rarely used in the Elementary classroom because the silk screen itself and other materials are very costly and creating a stencil is a difficult process often requiring a blade. 

If you are an art teacher, this is great because besides styrofoam, there are few printmaking techniques that are reasonable for Elementary.  

This year I bought some embroidery hoops here embroidery hoops from Blick for only $2.59 to attempt to make my OWN kind of silk screens!! Compared to the smallest silk screen frames that start at almost $20, this is awesome! 

I bought some white chiffon fabric at $4 a yard and added them to the hoops. 

This project is a great way to learn the process of silk screen!! 

You will need some fine line precision applicators and some Speedball Screen drawing fluid.

 This summer we used the Speedball fluid technique with art teachers to create silk screen prints using regular silk screen units. I just loved working with the drawing gel and screen filler, these were our results. I just needed something cheaper and more realistic for a class of 25+ 8 and 9 yr olds.

To begin, stretch your silk or chiffon fabric over the embroidery hoop and draw your design with a pencil first. Then

Then use the squeeze bottle with the drawing fluid to draw your design on the hoop. The lines print better when they aen't quite as small as the ones on this fish. big bold lines print better than tiny details.

Then you have to wait for the drawing fluid to dry completely. We waited overnight.

When the drawing fluid is dry, you paint the screen filler over the entire screen.

Let the screen filler dry completely, then run the silk screen under water and rub gently with a soft brush. The drawing liquid dissolves to create a stencil of your design!!!  

You can use Speedball Ink or a thick paint to print your stencil. I used Liquitex acrylic paint.  Use a firm straight edge such as a credit card, Styrofoam, or a real silk screen printing squeegee to spread the paint over your stencil

Lift the hoop to reveal your print!!!

You can rinse and reuse with different colors too! 

try mixing colors to teach color theory! 

Good Luck printing! I will post the results when I have done this with my classes! 

Check back on the blog next week to see pictures of all of our Dia De Los Muertos Animals!!! They are super fun, I can't wait to post them!!