HOW TO SUCCEED AT SILK-SCREENING

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With that done, pull the fabric tightly across the middle of the frame to the op posite long side and put in one staple at a time ... pulling the material taut—first to the right of center, then to the left—until the whole side is fastened. Repeat the process for the two short ends. (Fig. B will further clarify this procedure.)

For the finishing touch, apply paper wrapping tape over the outer one inch of the fabric and the entire wood frame, followed by several coats of shellac or plastic varnish (extending the covering 1/16 inch onto the screen's fabric) to make the tape waterproof and permanent. Be careful, however, not to smear or splatter varnish on any other part of the screen itself, and clean up any accidents immediately.

Finally, get a squeegee with a wiping surface that's as long as your screen's printing area is wide. (if you varnish the tool's wooden handle, you'll find it easier to keep clean.)

THE DETAILS OF DESIGN

Once your equipment is in order, the next step is to design a stencil. Keep in mind that silk-screening is best at covering large areas with a solid coat of ink ... so it's great for bold graphics, but not very good for rendering small details or letters less than 114 inch tall.

Though there're many kinds of stencils (the simplest sort is merely a design cut in tracing paper with an X-acto brand or other artist's knife), Susan Shutt made hers with photofilm ... a method that requires no particular manual dexterity or artistic ability. To make such a photostencil, you first need a "film positive" ..which is an opaque, black design on clear, acetate backing.

Susan's pottery sale flyer was printed in two colors, each of which required a separate stencil and a separate run through the "press". Her lettering positive was composed with transfer type, which is available in many sizes and typefaces. Each letter is rubbed with a blunt object to transfer it onto a sheet of acetate, which —while you're performing this operation —is placed over a lined paper ... to insure a neat job of positioning the letters. Ms. Shutt assembled the lettering one line at a time, then cut the lines apart and fastened them with transparent tape to another sheet of acetate ... parallel and centered (Photo 1).

The artwork for the second positive was taken from a book of out-of -copyright designs. There are two easy ways to get a film positive from a book: A print shop or graphic artist can make one for you on a photostat camera (this $3.00 to $5.00 procedure gives you the option of changing the drawing's size), or you can just photocopy the design and feed the copy through a Thermofax machine (these are found in most schools and libraries) to make a positive transparency. (Other ways to make positives include drawing directly on acetate with opaque black ink or making a photographic enlargement on high contrast litho film.) Susan's design positives were prepared by a printer. All she had to do was cut them out and position them on yet another sheet of acetate.

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