How a screen print is made

Every print in the shop is pulled by hand in our studio on the Obere Hauptgasse. Vreni Stucki has run the press since 2011 and mixes every ink herself.

Hands holding up an exposed screen-printing screen with lettering in the stencil

From drawing to edition

A five-colour print takes us about two weeks, most of it spent on the first sheet.

Squeegees with green, yellow and blue blades lined up on a rack — **Ink**We mix each colour by hand to match the artist's drawing and keep one squeegee per ink family.

A person studying proofs pinned to a studio wall covered in black and white prints — **Proof**The first pulls go up on the wall. The artist marks what should change and we adjust the stencil or the ink.

A hand writing in pencil on a clean white sheet — **Edition**Once a proof is approved we print the whole run, and the artist numbers and signs each sheet in pencil.

Paper and ink

Paper

300 g cotton paper from a mill in the Black Forest. Bright white, acid-free and heavy enough to stay flat in a frame.

Ink

Water-based screen inks mixed in small pots. Risographs use soy inks on 170 g recycled stock.

Size

Screen prints are mostly 50 × 70 cm and fit our frames. Risographs come in A3 and A2.

“A good print shows the hand. You can see where one colour sits a little over the next, and that is the point.”
Vreni Stucki, printer

Black and white photo of an artist leaning over a large sheet, drawing with a pencil

Fresh off the drying rack

Four new editions came off the press this month, from a Sigriswil landscape to a one-colour type poster.

Shop the prints