PAPER

1. Any smooth, heavyweight printmaking paper will work. With that said, I find Arches 88 Silkscreen to be the best of the best for these processes. It’s extremely smooth, but more importantly, super absorbent. Because it’s a non-sized (a.k.a waterleaf) paper, it absorbs every nuance of your image. Unfortunately, it’s not cheap.

2. Other paper contenders are Stonehenge, Somerset Velvet, Magnani Pescia, and Rives BFK (although it has a bit of texture).

3. I tend to use dry paper. You could also try dampened paper to transfer more detail from your screen to the paper. Ideally, you would want to dry it under weight so it stays flat.

4. It can be hard to predict exactly what will happen with some of these processes, so have plenty of extra paper on hand (and don’t be ashamed to use the flip side of a not-so-successful print).

IMAGE BOUNDARY

1. Part of the allure of these processes is their spontaneity, but I generally prefer to have some sort of image or boundary on the screen. That image could be as simple as a shape made with hand-painted screen filler or exposed photo-mechanically.

2. If you don’t have the time or patience for permanent stencils, packaging tape or a stencil cut from contact paper and adhered to the backside of the screen will also do the trick - it just won’t be as durable.

CLEAN UP

1. When finished printing, wash your screen with water and a gentle cleaner such as dish soap, Fantastik, or a very diluted Simple Green solution.

2. If the water soluble drawing materials or dark colored inks are staining your screen, you can clean the mesh with Magic Erasers (can be found in most stores with a cleaning aisle) or a fairly diluted bleach solution. The staining doesn’t cause printing issues, it’s just visually distracting.