Technique -Cut Stencil

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Screen printing is far and away more than t-shirts- and it can be a lot less complex.  The Cut Stencil technique is very easy to do and amazingly capable for the beginning screen printer.  At it's heart, the screen in a print process is a way to meter ink and allow the ink to be placed on an object in a controlled fashion.  The printable image is commonly adhered to the screen, but it doesn't need to be.  The stencil project consists of an image cut out of an acetate sheet and simply taped to the back of the screen.  Clear acetate or plastic sheets used for transparencies work great here!  The sheet needs to be about the grade of an x-ray image, slightly stiff but not so thick that it can't be cut accurately with a sharp x-acto knife.  Plastic is required so the stencil is ink and water proof.  the reasoning behind this is so the stencil will not degrade during a print run or subsequnt clean up.

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In this example, the floral sections are made with cut stencil.  The fish will be created with drawing fluid and a two color / two screen print will be the final result.

Some things to keep in mind about the stencil technique is that "floating" sections are not allowed.  The center of an "O", for example would need something to hold it in place.  Other than that it's a very forgiving method.  If you've made a mis-cut or error, place clear packing tape over both sides of the damaged area and cut it again!


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