mollee made

Screen Printing Fun

Ever since I first laid eyes on an Andy Warhol print back in middle school, I thought screen printing was pretty neat. I finally got to try it myself last Thursday when my creative director, Steve Hedberg, took the art department from Richmond magazine to a workshop at Studio Two Three, a local nonprofit print shop (thanks, Steve!). The space was cool, the staff was super nice, and the process was surprisingly easy.

So what did I print, you ask? Oh, my chihuahuas, of course.

We had to prepare our files ahead of time so that the staff could use them to create the screens. I just snapped some pictures of Carlos and Damita and messed with the threshold in Photoshop until I ended up with high-contrast images.

Here’s the silkscreen before I inked it up. The white layer is at the top of the screen, and the black layer is underneath. (Don’t mind that dark flower pattern in the center — I guess that was there from before, but it didn’t show up at all.)

I used lots of different colors of paper for my prints, starting with the white ink and then overprinting the black once the white dried. At first, I wasn’t putting enough pressure on my squeegee, but after I was reminded to “do it harder” several times (we’re so mature), I was able to knock out about 10 two-color prints an hour.

We all swapped artwork at the end, but I kept a print of Carlos on yellow and Damita on dark pink to frame and put in the nursery.

If you’re interested in screen printing, I’d definitely recommend taking a class at Studio Two Three or a community print shop near you. I just might have to go back and make some onesies.

By the way — over on the Belly Blog this week, I wrote about how to dress your belly for wacky weather like we’ve been having here in Virginia!