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Students Love Silkscreens!

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 June 2018 19:40

Mayco Designer Silkscreens are used by students of all ages and work well with any skill level. Incorporating a silkscreened image into a project allows for surface decorating of highly-detailed illustrations, with ease. Easy to apply, reusable and they can be applied to curved and rigid surfaces without compromising the design. Students can use Silkscreens alone, add color to them, use them as a background or combine screens on one piece to create depth, using lighter colors for the background and darker colors for the foreground. Talk about versatile!

Students at Marlette Community Schools in Michigan are achieving success with Mayco Designer Silkscreens. K-12 Visual Arts Teacher, Sarah Opperman, encourages her students to use Mayco silkscreens to jumpstart surface design. Using the silkscreens are so easy to use that all it takes is one lesson and students will be sharing their new-found artistic technique with others.

"I love the silkscreens, because I can get so much detail without spending all of my time stressing about if it 'looks right', said one student.

"Other students have also said that that are "So quick and easy, anybody can do it."

"I can get something beautiful and detailed when I don't think I could have drawn that myself." 

Sarah also takes advantage of Mayco's Custom Silkscreens - students create their own logo that they can use to 'sigh' their ceramic and painting pieces throughout the year. Have your own artwork that you want to create your very own Silkscreen? Click here to learn more.

How to use silkscreens:

1. Use a permanent marker to draw a circle around the design on your silkscreen. When applying your silkscreen medium -- whether that's an underglaze or an oxide -- be sure to extend it to the circle to ensure you cover the entire design.
2. Add your Silkscreen Medium a little bit at a time to your color. Mix slowly - remember, you can always add more! If the mixture gets too thick because you added too much Silkscreen Medium, don't worry -- just add more color.
3. Use a squeegee to apply your inking mixture to larger areas. For smaller areas, your fingers will work just fine!
4. You can use tape to hold your screen in place while you apply your color mixture.
5. Before you remove your screen after squeegeeing on your image, you might want to test the crispness of your edges or make sure that your color is getting applied in the proper thickness. Carefully lift up one edge of your screen to see how the image is transferring before removing it completely -- lining up such a detailed image after you remove it from the surface of your piece is very difficult!
6. Keep a bowl or bin of water nearby, and place used screens in it immediately after screening. This will prevent the color mixture from drying on the screen. Soaking the screen will make it even easier to clean. Pat screens dry and allow to dry before the next use.
7. Combine screens on one piece to create depth, using lighter colors for the background and darker colors for the foreground.
8. Add color to your design! You can do this by screening in black, and then filling the images in with color (from washes or underglazes). You can also screen in color for a different look.

Storage Tip: Using a notebook or binder, store screens and paper images in a clear insert. This keeps the screens flat and allows students to easily choose their favorite images.