Screen Printing

"Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil to receive a desired image. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A fill blade or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink into the mesh openings for transfer by capillary action during the squeegee stroke. Basically, it is the process of using a stencil to apply ink onto another material whether it be t-shirts, posters, stickers, vinyl, wood, or any material that can keep the image onto its surface.
Screen printing is also a stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed on a screen of polyester or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance. Ink is forced into the mesh openings by the fill blade or squeegee and onto the printing surface during the squeegee stroke. It is also known as silkscreen, serigraphy, and serigraph printing. A number of screens can be used to produce a multicolored image or design." from Wikipedia 
 
==Interphase, One Zine That Set the Bar High ==
The Star Trek: TOS zine Interphase set a high bar of fannish expectation for what could be done in terms of fan art and its production. 
Connie Faddis, the editor of Interphase, wrote in the editorial of the second issue: 
A fan wrote about the difference in cost between sf and media zines: 
Another fan wrote in Interstat that perhaps the bar Interphase set is now too high: 
In March 1981, a fan who had just bought a copy of Cheap Thrills, brought up the cost of zines in an issue of Interstat, and cited expansive art, including silkscreening, as a reason zines had gotten so expensive: 
==Examples of Fanart==
Image:warped14cover.jpg| silkscreened front cover of Warped Space #14, artist is Marty Siegrist. Fans were impressed at the art medium, some saying that, aside from Interphase, they'd never seen silkscreen before. One fan complained the cover curls up. And from another in the LoCs in a later issue: "The cover was beautiful -- I like the silkscreening, but the ink gets on your fingers. I had blue on my fingers for days after reading it."
File:Interphase1.jpg|the front cover of one of the most famous media zines, Interphase -- "In her first issue of Interphase, printed in 1975, Connie Faddis employed a method called silk-screening for her cover – a detailed, time-consuming project which only an accomplished artist like Connie would have the skill to pull off. But the rest of us settled for what we could learn and do more easily. Artistically, Interphase set the bar for all the zines that followed, in more ways than one. Nancy Kippax. ARS GRATIA ARTIS:: The Lost Art of Illoing. 20 July 2008 (accessed 12 Dec 2009) 
Image:scales.jpg|Scales of Justice contains dozens of black and white ink drawings, and intricate calligraphy, several interior silk screens, as well as a screened cover, artist is Connie Faddis
File:Scales 2.jpeg|another example of the interior art in Scales of Justice -- "I've shown the book to art teachers who are as impressed as I with the precise silk-screening and copious detail work." from Between Friends #12 
Image:complex3.jpg| front cover of B7 Complex #3 -- The cover artist, Deb Walsh explained: "I always admired the work of Connie Faddis - brilliant artist, writer, and zine editor. Her Interphase zine was legendary, and featured absolutely gorgeous silk-screened art. I never achieved the level of Faddis, but this was a fun project to do. The basic artwork was printed on the card stock, and then I cut two silk screen stencils - one for the silver ink that forms the frame, the zine title, and Jenna's necklace, and the other for the blue of the wind behind her. The theme of the silk-screened art in the zine was the four elements. Jenna was wind, Cally was fire, Dayna was water, and Soolin was earth (and the back cover). Deb Walsh's Zine Cover Gallery 
File:Pits1.jpg| front cover of The Pits -- from the editor, Melanie R: "I would like to apologize for the cost of the thing. I would like to, but I really can't. The artwork needs special attention, and the contents really deserve a good print job, so I'm going to photo-offset with it. Plus I think my neighbor and printer for the first issue would have cardiac arrest if presented with 200-plus names to run off -- remind me to tell you sometime about what his garage looked like after he got through printing the silkscreen cover for issue #1." by Melanie R from S and H, 1979 
Image:berengaria9.jpg|front cover of Berengaria #9, artist is Amy Falkowitz from a silkscreen design by Mary G. Busar
File:Energizeart1.jpg|the centerfold from Energize!, artist is Connie Faddis, see that zine page for controversy regarding this zine's art
File:Sahsheer.jpg|front cover of Sahsheer, silkscreened by Mary G. Buser
File:Alphacont2front.jpg|front cover of Alpha Continuum #2, artist is Marty Siegrist
==References==
Category:Visual Art