|
what is a serigraph?
Silk-screen
printing is a print making technique in which ink or paint is
forced through an extremely fine textured piece of fabric onto
paper or another material. When the process is used in fine arts
it is called serigraphy. The resulting print is a serigraph.
To make a serigraph, the artist uses a piece of silk, nylon or
polyester stretched tightly across a wood or metal frame to form
a screen. A stencil is created, either cut out or painted, to
mask parts of the design to be printed. A separate stencil and
screen must be used for each color. The artist places ink or paint
along one edge of the screen and spreads the ink or paint across
its surface with a rubber blade called a squeegee. The squeegee
distributes the ink and paint evenly and presses it through the
weave of the silk-screen fabric onto the paper directly underneath.
My serigraph "The Seder Table" is printed in 12 colors and it
is an edition of 180. This means that each of the individual sheets
of paper is printed 12 times (one for each color). Between colors
and sheets of paper must be set on drying racks in order to dry
before the next color is printed. The colors must be perfectly
registered so that the correct color falls in exactly the right
spot. When all the colors have been "layered" or printed one on
top of the other, the print is complete. It is then numbered.
The first 15% of the printed edition are the artist proofs. These
are not necessarily better prints because in a well printed edition
every print is as good as the last or else it is discarded as
a second. The edition numbering begins after the artist proofs.
If the print says 1/150, then you know there are 150 numbered
prints in the edition and the 1 is the first of the numbered prints.
After the edition is printed the silk screens are destroyed so
that there can never be any more printed. It is important to note
that a print can be advertised as a limited edition, but it could
be a limited edition of 10,000! In general, the smaller the number
of prints in the edition, the more valuable each print is.
|
