Screen Printing: The 4 Basic Techniques

The crafty married filmmaking team of Sharyn Pak and Larry Withers presents another solid entry in their series of instructional crafts programs here, teaching viewers how to make screen prints. Pak serves as narrator and guide, detailing four basic screen printing processes that can be performed in a small area—say, on a kitchen table. She discusses types of screens, tools, paint and other emulsions, and printing media—paper, card stock, and fabric. Pak starts with a stencil technique, followed by its opposite approach—known as the blackout method—in which the background takes the ink, leaving the design in the original color of the paper. Self-adhesive film is used for a more ambitious effort, printing in several colors on cloth for a tablecloth and napkins. The most complex project uses photo emulsion to make a four-color poster and a three-color T-shirt. DVD extras include galleries of prints from contemporary artists known as Strawberryluna and vintage posters from the Depression-era WPA; a primer on how to replace the fabric in a screen; advice on how to number and sign an edition of a print; and a downloadable PDF listing tools and materials. Highly recommended. Aud: P. (F. Gardner)