Golden, Sparkling, Vinyl Screen Printed Bear of Dreams.

So Iv'e just finished screen printing this. I’m posting the progress of the screen printing technique I used. I usually screen print with the traditional method, exposing screens etc, but this time I used a vinyl cutter to make a stencil instead of exposing the image onto the screen. The reason I did this was mainly to test the level of detail I could achieve with the vinyl cutter, and if I simply could screen print that way.

I’m really pleased with the end result; I think the paper and the bear complement each other completely. 

I wanted to give the character a delicate look due to the material I was using, so I hope this comes across and please let me know what you think. 

First I sketched the image and scanned it in at 600dpi gray scale. I find this is better for pencil sketches. It didn't really matter for this but I thought I would mention it. 

Next  I drew it up using the pen tool in adobe illustrator. I had to do this because the vinyl cutter recognise paths made in illustrator. 

The vinyl cutter then cuts out the image. 

Parts of this image where extremely intricate such as the fur of the bear. Naturally these parts I had to take care with when cutting out so as not to tear the vinyl. 

I used a knife to remove the unwanted vinyl, leaving a negative of the line work that I would pull the ink through. 

To remove the whole vinyl sticker in one go I used a sheet of masking tape. I stuck this lightly onto the front of the vinyl. 

I then stuck the vinyl onto the front of the screen before removing the masking tape. Which gave me the stencil. 

Finally was the taping up of the screen and pulling the ink through. The fabric paper is extremely thin the the metallic paint would seep through to the bed. Which meant wiping it off before the next print. 

If you have any questions about the print of the process, drop me an email or leave a comment. 

DON'T EAT THE PIPS.