The Art of Printmaking
By Emma Shaller
This summer I went to Peters Valley School of Craft. I learned three printmaking techniques: screen printing, monoprinting, and woodcut. My teacher’s name was Stephen McKenzie, and he always wore CRAZY socks! There is a picture of him above.
In screen printing, we made t-shirts. In monoprinting, we transferred a picture made of ink from Plexiglas to paper. With woodcut, one of the traditional forms of printmaking, we drew a picture and transferred it onto a rubber slab and carved it out.
Printmaking Tips
Four seasons monoprint.
One very cool thing that I learned is that when using these printing techniques you have to put everything backwards. For example, I made a picture of the four seasons, and when I wrote the word “summer” I had to start with R not S. Plus, not only did the words have to be backwards, but the letters had to be backwards as well.
A “dull” style screen print.
Another interesting thing about printmaking is that when you screen print you have to first draw your design on a piece of paper and then cut it out. You can make it dull or detailed. When I say dull I mean a very simple shape like a heart or a circle, but when I say detailed I mean a pattern like horizontal or vertical lines.
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A “detailed” style screen print.
Peters Valley School of Craft
19 Kuhn Road
Layton, NJ 07851
973-948-5200
Photos courtesy Heron’s Eye Communications.