Printmaking Series (6 of 21) - Screen printing with simple pastes

By Nik Semenoff July 12, 2004

} Screen printing with simple pastes Printmaking Series - Part 6 of 21 By Nik Semenoff For years screen printers had to put up with the solvents in ink made for commercial sign painters. Because editions released a large amount of the toxic material, studios were a dangerous place to work. Add to this the cleanup solvents to reclaim screens, plus the chemicals to remove emulsions, made screen printing the most dangerous of the print media. If the artist chose to work with glossy vinyl ink, then the hazard increased many times. Nik Semenoff An artists working alone in their studio would certainly have a problem with the solvents, but classrooms produced a copious amount of toxic fumes as students worked on their assignments. It is this concern that made me look to a safer material for my classes. Originally I tried the various water based ink designed for signs and printing on cloth. The most applicable contained acrylic emulsion and was an improvement over solvent types in regard to safety. Because students are not experience in printing, they would regularly plug the screen as the acrylic dried and was no longer removable with plain water. Strong solvents were needed to save their screens and this was a step backwards. Besides the manufacturers color selections left a lot to be desired, but those with a better variety tended to be very costly. A better way had to be found. Considering that the Japanese have been using rice paste for their block prints for centuries, many of these have survived if not lost from disasters. The media certainly was archival even when the printers did not consider this important. With this in mind, I experimented with common cornstarch paste and universal tinting pigments from a paint store. The results were beyond my expectations. I found that paste was the only binding medium that would reproduce the very fine particles of toner washes on Mylar. As for pigments, today most are made from organic materials and included in oil, acrylic, watercolor and pastel palettes. Consider the automobile exposed to hot daylight sun over many years - they keep their color extremely well. The universal tinting pigments from a reputable house paint company are classified into interior and exterior. I feel that the exterior grade should certainly be of high enough quality to withstand deterioration in a frame inside the home. Alan Flint Cooking cornstarch for the classroom was beyond the call of duty so I looked for an easier supply of paste. Considering the ingredients of wallpaper paste is simple starches and preservatives, I was told they cannot be made cheaper than the what price of wheat is regularly. After trying a number of products, I found one that fit the requirements perfectly. The cost of running the print department was reduced by a large factor as the paste and pigments cost combined were a small faction of screen ink. Cleanup was simple water, and if the student let the ink dry in their screen, a good flood coat would soften the ink so it could be easily removed. While fine art screen printers may not feel comfortable in using these materials, schools and teaching institutions could make the studio much safer and save on their budgets. Printers have voiced their concerns about paper wrinkling from the wet paste, but in my experience with rag paper of the average print weight, there has been very little change when viewed from the back. Water based block prints and the acrylic inks created greater distortion on paper. ________________________________________________ Copyright © 2004 Nik Semenoff Nik Semenoff Artist-in-residence University of Saskatchewan Visit Nik Semenoff's website at duke.usask.ca/~semenoff/ for more information.

• Posted: 2004-07-12