Screenprinting

Printmaking is one of my favourite art processes. It looks a bit daunting at first - there are so many foreign-looking tools and materials! Once you are shown a few simple techniques though, the sky is the limit.

Children of all levels of artistic ability have so much fun with this screen printing project and the results are really stunning. It was fun for my Year 3 students to use completely new tools, such as the screen and the 'squeegee'.

In this task, the students first created a stack of background sheets using a watercolour wash on paper. They were encouraged to use analogous colours for this. Next, they used folded scrap paper to make a paper cut - just as if they were making a snowflake. This was then placed on the silk screen to form a mask. Each student then used the squeegees to 'push' the block printing ink through the screen, resulting in these beautiful prints.

The fun of printmaking is that you can make as many as you like! Each child was able to take away multiple prints, each with varying colour effects.