Studio Lazy

Screen printing workshop

October 22 2023

We are hosting a screen printing play session at our house.

We will be using paper stencils to print 2 or three colour designs. We will have two silk screens for use.

Note: This workshop has now been and gone. You can read a write-up of it in on this page: Screen printing Oct '23 .

With screen printing many image making techniques are possible. However for this workshop we will be sticking to simple designs and colours. There are quite a few steps in making screen prints, including a fair bit of cleaning up after each print. So we are trying to keep it simple for this session, so that everyone can have a go, and everyone can finish a print.

Workshop plan

We will provide some example stencils that people can use
We will also have some paper and cutting equipment if people want to make their own designs
Or, if you wish to make some stencils before arriving, please follow the guidance below
We will be printing on card or paper. With the stencils you should be able to make four or more prints before they deteriorate, so you should get a feel for printing multiple copies of your design.

Here is a video showing the technique we'll be deploying:
Screen Printing: How to make PAPER STENCILS!.

Guidance for making your own stencils

Try to keep your design to 7” square - this will help us with lining up everyone's designs
You will want to cut-out the part of the design that you want to print
If you are doing more than one colour, you will need a separate stencil for each colour you want to print
Ideally each stencil to be positioned on the page so that they all line up

See these two examples below.

Example of original design broken up into 3 stencils

Example of original design broken up into 2 stencils

If you want to hand draw your design, before turning it into a stencil, we'd recommend drawing it on thin paper, ideally with something that gives a heavy mark. And then lay your stencil paper over the original drawing, and trace out the parts that will make up a stencil.

Try to keep to 2 or 3 colours maximum. We will be printing with flat colours, so no gradients or shading.