We had a screen printing workshop where we produced a CMYK hot dog publication. To create this publication we used 4 separate screens which were lined up allowing us to screen print photographs. Laying up each screen was very time consuming because even if we were only 1 mm off on each one the whole publication could be completely off. Even after spending a long period of time aligning the screen you still had to line up the paper which proved to be difficult. Another issue was that you could print 3 layers perfectly but then on the key layer you could be slightly off which meant the whole publication was ruined meaning you have to over print just incase you have an issue.
Below are some images of me through the stages of printing; from aligning the paper to pulling the squeegee to the finished publication.
This is Tristan washing off the screen, this had to be done after every colour and took around 15 minutes and then the screen had to go into the drying room. Screen printing is an extremely lengthy process and takes up a lot of time, but the textures produced cannot be replicated through digital printing, therefore in some circumstances screen printing is the better option.
I thoroughly enjoyed the screen printing workshop and found it extremely useful and therapeutic. However, it is extremely time consuming having to line up and wash all 4 screens. I think I would only ever use this method if I was producing a larger edition and selling them, otherwise I think i'll stick to single or double colour screen printing.