new silkscreened business cards!


just in time for zine fest (as in the night before) i finished my newest round of silkscreened business cards! with 6 layers on the front & 3 on the back, this was the most ambitious project i've taken on since graduating. i designed a pattern for the back and about 18 different card designs for the front.

after designing the file in photoshop, i printed out the 9 separate color layers as "films" (the paper i physically use to burn the screen). jonas and i recently upgraded our exposure unit, so i thought i'd be able to burn my screens using baby-oiled inkjet prints on normal paper. see below (pre-baby oiled)(baby oil just makes the white more transparent)

after a failed screen or two, I accepted that due to the amount of fine detail,  i needed to splurge on waterproof transparencies instead (higher contrast film= easier to burn). burning these screens was a lot of trial and error- i probably burned 5 failed screens from start to finish. it's challenging to burn a highly detailed screen without an exposure unit that has a vacuum- and factors such as mesh count, mesh color, screen tension, etc, all effect how long to expose your films.

i didn't do an excellent job documenting each step in the process, but here's a picture of the first layer i printed:


the printing process itself goes fairly quickly. i really love the physical component of silkscreening; it's satisfying to use my strength to push the ink through the screen. i like having a physical relationship to my artwork, it makes me feel more connected to what i'm making & more excited to share it.

the printing process took me about a week and in the end, i have about 650 silkscreened cards. whew!

<<and here's a bonus picture documenting the reality of printing in a 400 sq ft house. every surface was covered with a print (not pictured are the cats! who were very interested in stepping on wet prints and then tracking ink everywhere)>>