Omanu Screenprinting with year 3 and 4 students

I have cut a set of templates for the internal printing surface of the screens. The year 3 and 4 students from Omanu School, trace around the template then design and draw their underwater animal to fit the space provided.

Omanu Screenprinting with year 3 and 4 students

After designing the stencils its time to cut them out with scissors. With this age of student I find scissors the safest way to gain the result.

Omanu Screenprinting with year 3 and 4 students

Now its time to decide if we will use the positive or negative stencils.

Omanu Screenprinting with year 3 and 4 students

The boys have completed 2 prints with the first stencil and now prepare to peel off the old stencil, lay fresh newsprint down, new stencil, the screen, fresh ink and print.

Omanu Screenprinting with year 3 and 4 students

I use plastic spoons to dispense the waterbased textile ink. The students choose the colour they want for their prints then tap out about 2 spoonfuls about 3 cm back from the far edge of the screen. Then a little bit of scraping with the spoon to give an even distribution of colour where required.

Omanu Screenprinting with year 3 and 4 students

Boys help each other across the table. One holds the screen in position the other pulls the squeegee across the screen.

Omanu Screenprinting with year 3 and 4 students

The students were very exited about the 3D look of the jelly fish. It was a very tidy crisp bleed.

Screenprinting

I prepared photo emulsion on a screen using the 2 part Fotolac 49, then applied the emulsion with the coating trough. My exposure test in stages of 2 minutes for 2 to 14 minutes. Using my sunbed studio UV light box. I let the screen dry off in the darkroom then used the garden hose to wash out. Unfortunately nothing washed out so I used the waterblaster and carefully worked up the screen and was successful in the test up to the 8 minute mark. Then the emulsion was stubborn. I was very pleased with the image on the screen, it was very detailed and looked very like the 4 photograhic images (negatives) that I used.