Skip to content
confessions of a design geek confessions of a design geek

Award-winning UK design blog established in 2010 to discover, champion and inspire new designers.

  • Home
  • product
  • furniture
  • features
  • About
  • Contact
confessions of a design geek
confessions of a design geek

Award-winning UK design blog established in 2010 to discover, champion and inspire new designers.

here’s one I made earlier :: screenprinting tips

Katie, December 11, 2011June 16, 2020
This article was published 15 years

I’m currently doing a screen printing course at Putney School of Art & Design and although I’ve posted about screen printing before, I’ve picked up a few tips that I thought might be worth sharing. Now that I’ve progressed into printing in multiple colours, this is a great way of making sure each colour is ‘in register’ (lined up) with the colours you’ve already printed. You set up as normal, but place a sheet of acetate over what you’re printing onto and create a hinge down one side using parcel tape.

(Another useful tip that you’ll notice I’ve done above is to affix a tiny piece of masking tape to each corner of your template just to hold it in place.)

Print as normal onto the acetate and then line up your print underneath so that the colours you’ve already printed, in this case the yellow background and large brown leaves, are positioned correctly in relation to the colour you’re about to print and have just printed onto the acetate, in this case the smaller red-brown leaves.

Once you’ve done this you need to make some place holders. Stick four layers of masking tape on top of each other lined up against a straight edge. Cut the length into three pieces and use these to mark one corner and the long edge of your print. This enables you to put down every subsequent print in exactly the same place.

Once you’ve got your print in the right place, you can remove the acetate by opening it at the hinge…

…and then you can print directly on the print underneath, safe in the knowledge that you can just fold the acetate back over to check the positioning on the next print.

This is colour three on a set of prints that will hopefully end up with five or six colours, so I’ll share some more picture s when they’re finished.

Further reading for the especially geeky:

  • http://minimocha.blogspot.com/2011/12/screen-printing.html
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogKeYH2wEE
  • here’s one I made earlier :: screenprinting
  • http://www.facebook.com/fpsad
This article was published 15 years
Confessions of a Design Geek here's one I made earlier demohow-toprintingputney school of art and designscreenprinting

Post navigation

Previous post
Next post

Related Posts

Confessions of a Design Geek

creative spaces :: the tribes

February 17, 2016June 16, 2020

This article was published 10 years The way we work is changing. 95{ff546b69e23b1524d799f96c6ba7a638e1f677053b0a2a1568b05315fd5f8fc7} of medium sized businesses now offer flexible working – and evolving technology combined with cost effective travel enables us to work from wherever the business is. People are also more likely to set up independent ventures and…

Read More
Confessions of a Design Geek

photos of numbers :: 349b, 353f, 14 & 15

February 8, 2013June 16, 2020

This article was published 13 yearsMore photos of numbers from my recent travels – these ones were spotted while walking around Cologne and Amsterdam. (It’s now got to the stage when people point numbers out to me and pull me over to take a photo!) I love the hand lettering…

Read More
Confessions of a Design Geek

interview :: ola

July 1, 2014June 16, 2020

This article was published 12 years East London based designer maker Katy Goutefangea launched new surface pattern design brand, Ola, at Pulse London in May. I’m a big fan of Katy’s work, so I was eager to find out more… What’s the most important thing to know about you? Ola…

Read More

Comments (7)

  1. Katrina - Dot Dot Dash says:
    December 31, 2011 at 9:00 am

    Lovely screen print! Super simple x kat

    Reply
  2. design geek says:
    January 1, 2012 at 9:27 pm

    Thanks for your comment, Katrina. I did go on to add more leaves in more colours, but I kept a couple at this stage, because I liked their simplicity. Happy New Year! x

    Reply
  3. heidi says:
    January 12, 2012 at 1:47 pm

    I do love screen printing, I did quite a bit at Art College but sadly none since. Etching is also quite good as it varies the more prints you do making each one unique, and it’s a bit of a work out!

    Reply
    1. design geek says:
      January 12, 2012 at 2:15 pm

      Heidi, You should definitely take it up again – it’s so much fun! I’ve never done etching, would definitely like to give it a try. I’m currently making my own ink stamps, which I’m guessing it a similar process?? Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment x

      Reply
  4. Zoë {Conversation Pieces} says:
    January 24, 2012 at 11:30 am

    Love this… your leaf prints are so pretty! and great use of the colours. I’m doing a printmaking class at the moment but I’m yet to get to three colours 😉

    Reply
  5. jeni says:
    March 24, 2012 at 12:22 am

    Looks fun! – would you recommend the Putney School of Art & Design?
    I’m thinking of doing a course, but they’re pricey, do you think it’s worth it? x

    Reply
    1. design geek says:
      March 24, 2012 at 3:53 am

      Jeni,

      For what you get I think they’re very well priced compared to alternatives. I would definitely recommend them. The quality of not only the teaching, but your fellow students is incredible – you’ll learn so much just from being there. And get involved with the Friends too – great lectures. Get in quick once registration opens though, because they get booked up very quickly. Tell me how you get on!

      Katie x

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

©2026 confessions of a design geek | WordPress Theme by SuperbThemes