Imagine a giant stencil. Now, picture using that stencil to paint a design onto a shirt or a poster. This is essentially what silk screen printing (often called screen printing) is all about. It involves creating a stencil (or screen) of the design and then pushing ink through the screen to print the image onto a surface.

Here’s the step-by-step process:

Making the Screen: A mesh screen (traditionally made of silk, though today it’s usually nylon or polyester) is coated with a light-sensitive emulsion. The design is then transferred onto the screen, either manually or digitally.

Printing: The screen is placed over the material (like a T-shirt), and ink is pushed through the screen using a squeegee. Each color in the design requires a different screen, so the process involves layering the colors one by one.

Curing: The printed material is heated to cure the ink, ensuring that the design doesn’t wash off or fade.