Essay On Silkscreening

1572 Words4 Pages

Today, when you walk down just about any populated street, any busy hallway, or take a seat on any public bus, there’s a good chance what someone’s wearing might catch your eye for a number of reasons, maybe a strong message or a beautiful design. This trend of placing imagery and messages on clothing apparel started around the turn of the 20th century with the increasing popularity of politically branded accessories. Since then, apparel of all kinds have become canvases for artists and corporations alike. Today, silk screening; an ever-evolving medium is regarded by many as the best there is for apparel design and some forms of artistic expression, and it continues to evolve and grow to this day. Although Silkscreening has changed throughout the years, especially once more advanced technology was mixed into the art, for many, it’s the time-tested methods that have been used for decades that prove to be …show more content…

During the Song dynasty (A.D. 960-1280), silkscreening became widely popular in china, where they created masks, “i.e. the basis of the modern screen printing frames”, (Carnevale, M. History of Screenprinting) known modernly as screens. This allowed the printing of much more detailed designs. These masks, while making a long lasting way to preserve a perfect ink passage, were slow and complex to create, using human hair and rice paper to hold the stencil together. During the 19th century, the Japanese impressed the Europeans with their textiles at World Fairs, soon after“craftsmen in England and France began to use screens made of silk”, (Kali Forbes, Silkscreening History) which gave it the name Silk screening. Silkscreen processes were primarily used for printing fabrics in Europe, and in the United States, the uses were almost exclusively commercial. These printing techniques became a “jealously guarded secret in the United States. Traveling-Teachers were used to sell their knowledge to local printers.” (Carnevale, M. History of

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