Making a Stencil

Making a Stencil – Before you can start printing, you must prepare a stencil to hold the paint back from the parts of the print that are blank. Use ordinary tracing paper of the kind draftsmen favour, not the waxed type. Cut the overall size of the stencil a little smaller than the area of your screen.

Now lay the tracing paper over your copy, whether it is drawing, lettering or some form of design, and trace this so that the pattern is centralized in the screen. Do this tracing in pencil, very clearly marking the outlines and every detail.

Lift the tracing paper off the design and lay it on a sheet of smooth cardboard and cut out the design with a stencil knife, or a very sharp penknife. Make clean cuts, holding the knife almost vertical and see that the tracing paper is cut right through. Hold the stencil up to the light and carefully examine this and correct any blemishes. Now fasten the stencil to the screen and fix all round the edges with gummed paper tape.