Screen printing, artisanal art printing

The word serigraphy comes from the Latin sericus (silk) and the Greek graphein (to write, draw). Although the term was invented in the 20th century, the process dates back 2,700 years. Its origins date back to the Chinese, who used the technique of stencils glued onto a piece of silk to decorate fabrics and write proverbs on paper. It was Marco Polo, the famous Venetian, who discovered this printing process during the seventeen years he spent at the Chinese imperial court and brought it back to Europe. In the 1960s, other artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg took up the serigraphy technique and gave it the space it deserves.

For each color we have to print with a different frame, so we can play with overlaps, transparencies, etc. Screen printing allows you to obtain unique color renderings (fluorescent, gold, etc.) and to print on any flat surface (paper, fabric, glass, metal, etc.). It allows you to reproduce a creation in multiple copies from a matrix, but unlike offset or digital printing, hand printing is not based on productivity. You have to know how to take your time and accept that there may be errors. Hand printing is a taste for manual work but also a passion for beautiful paper and beautiful prints.

Screen printing is a stencil printing process. This is made possible by the screen through which the ink (6) is pressed by the squeegee during the printing process. To create such a stencil, a screen, a photographic emulsion and a UV light source (4) are needed, as well as a graphic template, printed entirely in black on an exposure film. The screen is then exposed using the created template. The finished screen, exposed with its own pattern, can be screen printed on various materials.

The screen printing technique can be divided into 3 phases: the artwork, the exhibition and the printing.

Once you know what you want to print, you need to divide the drawing into as many "subdrawings" as there are colors you want to print. For example, if you want a drawing in yellow and black, you will need to prepare two separate drawings, one with what will be printed in yellow and one with what will be printed in black. These two "subdrawings" must be prepared (printed or drawn) in opaque ink on transparent paper. Regardless of the color each "subdrawing" is printed in, the typeface will always be opaque black (light does not pass through the drawing).

The light (4) passes through the transparent paper and hardens the emulsion, which becomes waterproof. In contrast, the light is blocked by the opaque black drawing and does not harden the emulsion. It will disappear when washed away, leaving the fabric bare (5) and permeable to the ink for printing. The frame is ready.

Once ready, the frame is hung on the printing table with hinges. At the same time, the colors are mixed to obtain the right mixture with the right consistency. Then the paper (6) is placed on the table, under the frame. The ink is put on the frame and spread with a squeegee.

The gallery's works are silkscreen printed.

We print our silkscreens at Fallani in Venice.

Fallani Venezia is an artisanal artistic screen printing laboratory, active since 1968 in the heart of the city of Venice. It prints high quality editions, making available its technical expertise and sensitivity, managing to interpret and translate into graphics the different expressive languages ​​of painters, sculptors, photographers, illustrators, street artists, graphic designers and designers.