What is screen-printing anyway?

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Screen-printing is a type of printing commonly used on textiles. A stencil is created on a fine-mesh screen through various techniques; Snow Deep uses light-sensitive emulsion. In this technique, emulsion is applied to a screen and allowed to dry in a light-safe environment. 

 

A film containing an image is then taped to the screen and the the screen is exposed to a light table for a specific number of minutes. The emulsion on the screen in the background areas hardens by exposure to the light. And in reverse, the image area on the film blocks the light, allowing that emulsion area to stay soft.

 

The film is removed and the image area is then rinsed out with a high pressure washer, creating a stencil. The hardened emulsion in the background stays put. This stencil is the area in the screen where ink may pass through, the same as the image on your film.

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The screen is attached to a rotating printing press and ink is pressed through the open image areas with a squeegee onto a garment stretched flat on a platen. The ink is set, or cured, by heat. A heating element called a flash is rotated over the garment until the ink reaches a certain temperature, approximately 320 degrees.

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Each color in a screen-printing design requires its own screen and is printed separately for each piece. The colors combine to create a multi-color image.

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All Snow Deep garments and paper items are printed in this way, hand-screen-printed by an artist.

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