SCREEN PRINTING - In pottery (1) Making a design for tiles.
ca: SERIGRAFIA - En ceràmica (1) Fent un disseny.
es: SERIGRAFÍA - En cerámica (1) Haciendo un diseño.
The following is an explanation of how to use these methods in addition to your ceramic work. As you are not going to have time to learn to make your frames, stretch and mount the mesh and make the stencils needed for your designs, you should have it professionally done, which will be quicker, cheaper and better.
The difficulty is that to photograph stencils directly onto a screen, the lines of the design should be completely opaque. If not when being exposed to the light for stenciling, the parts the light passes through harden, becoming impervious to ink. In other words, the parts of the design where the ink is not strong enough will not be visible.
DIFFERENT WAYS OF PREPARING A DESIGN
The following shows two ways to prepare the design.
1) Make a design on your computer to the size needed. Enlarge it so you can see it clearly, to be sure that the black is solid and the white very clean. Then the firm that makes your screens will prepare it, so it can be used.
2) A design prepared in the following way can be put directly onto the screen. Make a drawing of the design so it can be traced onto paper called “Drafting film double-matt polyester” which is transparent, use paint known as “photo-negative,” which is opaque, black and made for retouching negatives. With the same type of brush you use to decorate, and with the ink mentioned, trace the design onto the polyester paper. The paint can be mixed with water but be careful as it must be completely opaque. If you are copying from a drawing and the paper you are working on is not very transparent, work on a designer’s table which has a glass top and is lit up from underneath. The problem with this method is that if you make a mistake it is very difficult to correct and the advantage is are that the movements of the paintbrush can be seen in the outlines.
The next section; Screen Printing (2) Preparing the screen
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