The first screen prints were seen about one thousand years ago in China (Sung dynasty); while not true screen prints as we understand the term (they were little more than stencils held in place by human hair) they were still the first examples of what for the past century has become a commonly accepted form of printing on to just about any medium you can think of. The basic system originally know as silk screen printing involves pushing ink through a fine mesh onto the surface to be printed. Prior to the introduction of monofilament (synthetic) fabrics around fifty years ago silk (because of its strength), was the preferred material for making printing screens.
These days by combining synthetic screens with a photographic process we're able to produce fairly intricate colour designs on just about any surface imaginable. |