Screen Printing

Recently I have been concentrating on connections and integration between people. I have decided to produce a piece mapping out the movements and experiences of people at my birthday house party a few weeks ago. A drew out rough diagrams of the upstairs and downstairs of the house, I then measured the house and noted down all the measurements. This took me about an hour with some help. My friend then helped me draw out the diagrams using a programme on the computer called sketcher. I printed out the diagrams large so each floor of the house covered 8 pieces of A4 paper. I then got some A3 acetate, taped it together until it covered each print out of the diagram and traced over in in thick black felt tip. I was using the acetate to make a screen for printing. Unfortunately the way screens are made uses light....if the light can travel through the markings on the acetate the screen will not be successful for printing. The black lines I had traced were not dark enough so the screen which was produced did not work as well as I had hoped, I made a print using it but unfortunately the lines did not show in some places and were faint in others...although i didn't mind the different textures on the lines, I did need all the lines to show up for the map to be successful. I had to make the lines darker so I doubled up the acetate and drew over the second layer with dark felt tip pen too...I am still waiting for the results from this which should be ready after the easter holidays, hopefully the lines made from the screen printing will be bold enough for my piece. Some people have suggested that screen printing was not a wise choice for technical style drawings..however I think the printing method makes the technical drawings far more interesting because the lines are not all 100% perfect and precise and there are some imperfections. (Above is a photograph of the acetate I have been describing)