|
Recycled and Handmade
Papers that we use are primarily manufactured in villages
in India. This paper is eco-friendly as it is produced mainly by
recycling waste materials such as cotton rags and waste paper. Some
papers are also made from regenerating plants' bark. Other natural
fibres like jute, straw, banana, husk, flower petals, silk, wool
and herbs are then blended with the primary fibres for a decorative
effect.
Silk Screen Printing is a traditional
manual technique of printmaking. The screen is made of a piece of
porous, finely woven fabric (polyester or nylon has replaced the
use of silk since the 1940’s) stretched over a wood frame.
The process which we follow is explained below:
- An original laser printed image of the design/text is placed onto
a transparent overlay.
- This overlay is placed over an emulsion-coated screen, and then
exposed to sunlight. The areas that are not opaque in the overlay
allow light to reach the emulsion, which hardens and sticks to
the screen.
- The screen is washed off thoroughly. The areas of emulsion that
were not exposed to light, corresponding to the image on the overlay
dissolve and wash away, leaving a negative stencil of the image
attached to the screen.
- The screen is then placed on top of each piece of paper to
be printed. Ink is poured on top of the screen, and a squeegee
(rubber blade) is manually used to evenly spread the ink into
the screen openings and onto the paper, then the screen is lifted
away. This process is then repeated onto every individual paper.
- The screen can be re-used after cleaning. If more than one
colour is being printed on the same surface, the ink is allowed
to dry and then the process is repeated with another screen and
different colour of ink.
|