Thursday, June 19, 2014

Screen Printing on Plywood


In the quest of expanding on some recent techniques I learned at Highpoint Center for Printmaking, I've been wanting to go beyond printing on paper and work with materials that are a bit more architectural - like plywood! Interestingly enough, the one thing that I have noticed is that despite the material and thickness differences, printing on wood actually behaves quite similar to paper with the added bonus of the wood grain as a part of the piece. 

Still using the Iceland image, since it was already burned, the top image shows a watercolor print, the second down is a graphite print, and last but not least is an opaque print. Most of the plywood (with the exception of stray unknown pieces) that I've been printing on is Baltic Birch. 


Unleashing my inner hidden woodworker, I made one sample panel for a more involved four screen print with the help of my fathers tools and his garage. First we took two pieces of plywood and cut them down to size, with the flat side for screen printing, and the frame side meant to sit flat against the wall and accommodate the hanging hardware. Next we glued them together with standard interior grade elmer's wood glue.  They dried overnight, and the next morning we planed down the edges so they aligned flat. The final step involved taking the rough piece to a wood worker with a router or table saw.  The ply's in plywood are one of the inherent characteristics that show how it is constructed, so I wanted to have the edges of the piece beveled, exposing the ply's like a reverse frame. 

Lessons Learned:
01. To avoid an excessive amount of planing, cut the two pieces of plywood at the same time
02. Don't shop at Home Depot or Menard's.  Finding quality plywood there is impossible. Go to a specialty wood store.

Time to expose the screens!


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