Screenprinting is a great simple process which will enable you to print your own bag, t-shirt or other fabric item. Screenprinting kits start at around £30 with everything you need to get started, or you could have a go at making a screen yourself. The following tutorial is a good place to start:
Once you’ve got a screen, you need to design a stencil. There are lots of great ‘how to’ videos on YouTube – just search for screenprinting stencils. The Hunt the Moon site also has a good tutorial for beginners, and a good tutorial for printing onto a bag or fabric.
Get printing!
Rob Ryan
One of our most recognised artists of the moment is Rob Ryan, who specialises in screenprints and papercuts.
Rob was born in 1962 in Akrotiri, Cyprus, and has an MA in printmaking from the Royal College of Art. He has been using this medium for most of his career:
“I used to concentrate on screen prints big and bold a graphic, with lots of words… I was a screenprinter a long time before I ever began working with cut paper, working on cut out stencils gave me an understanding of how screenprinting could work best for me until eventually the paper itself became the artwork, the simplicity and purity of intent was one of the aspects of screenprinting that originally appealed to me as an 18-year-old student.”
Although Rob views himself first and always as a fine artist, his intricate papercut work adapts itself readily to many other mediums including ceramics, textiles, homewares and even jewellery. His work often consists of whimsical figures paired with sentimental, grave, honest and occasionally humorous pieces of writing which he admits are autobiographical.
Rob has exhibited widely across the UK and internationally, and has written and illustrated several books. You can find his work at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park amongst other places.
