How to use this Page

Hello again! As promised, I remembered to document the stencil process of prints for the upcoming Open Space Limited Run show. I managed to do three editions, and I am retiring these stencils as I have made ten prints each with them and they are starting to fall apart.

The following is the process as performed by me; you will find I am a bit unorthodox as I am all about keeping my prints nice and neat. Also please keep in mind that this method is used for flat printing and not for stenciling on vertical surfaces:

First, you need to cut your images/layers. I am using stencils from last year due to time constraints so I will not be showing this part of the process. I'm sure you can find lots of tutorials online.

For this process, I focused on one image; above is the Buscemi stencil laid out. I actually keep all of my layers attached to a piece of board so that they are lined up with each other; this way, I just need to flop the layer onto the paper and the registration is lined up.

I printed both outdoors and at SUNY New Paltz. I prefer working at SUNY as its indoors and they have a hood that whisks those pesky paint fumes away. However, I have to wait until the students leave, so I decided to get a jumpstart by working outside during the day. I use one of those "science project" pieced of folded cardboard as both a surface to spray on and to transport materials.

In addition to keeping my layers lined up, I used built-up corners of tape to ensure that my paper is always placed in the same spot.

Its widely advocated to use spray adhesive to hold down a layers to avoid underspray (paint getting under the layer). However, I despise spray adhesive with every ounce of my being, and I only use it when permanently mounting an image to board; I just find it a pain to have sticky fingers or when there is a possibility of everything sticking to each other, and its easy to accidentally destroy a layer or print. So I weigh my layers down. With pennies. And nuts. Sometimes I use fishing sinkers.

2 Comments on Open Space Print Process, last added: 12/9/2009