Silk-screening with newspaper laser cutouts

I want to LASER CUT NEWSPRINT stencils to use for silk-screening.  Note that all the DXF files for laser cutting can be downloaded from *THIS FOLDER.*

This newsprint stencil is the simplest silk-screening method that Michael Roman taught me at the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco.  The advantage here is that one does not have to burn a screen to make a serigraph print. This was one of the techniques that Michael used to silk-screen shirts for Carlos Santana.

Michael Roman's Serigraphs

Note the drummer stencil --

We showed this print by Michael Roman

in Albuquerque in 2017

Other work by Michael Roman

showing at the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco

shortly after he passed

Preparing the Stencils

1)  I made a photocopy of the image that I roughly wanted to silk-screen...in this case one of my Maya drawings:

Maya Style

2)  I cut that image out in a silhouette, as ONE piece:

3)   I scanned the back side of the cutout, in front of a dark background, to digitize it's silhouette:

The scan: of the backside of the cutout on a dark background:

4)  I removed the background digitally, which I did online in RemoveBG:

5)  Then I made a vector file of the silhouette online in AutoTracer.

6)   In Cloud Convert I converted that SVG file to DXF:  220826_Maya_Style.DXF (33.55 KB)

7)  I imported that DXF file into the "LaserCut5.3" software next to the laser cutter at Quelab:

Note that this software uses millimeters only, so I have to convert inches into mm:

132 x 149 mm 

8)   Settings for cutting several sheets of newsprint: 

• Cut
• Speed 50
• Power 20

 

9)  I follow the LASER CUTTER INSTRUCTIONS:

A)  Turn the laser cutter on.  The water cooler goes on automatically, but it might be a good idea to see if it's red light is on.  Wait for about 10 minutes for the water to run through the whole machine.

B)  Hit "Download" button at the lower right corner of screen. The following dialog box will show up:

C)  "Del all" to delete all files in the system

D)  " Download CFG" sends configuration instructions to the laser cutter

E)  "Download current" sends your file to the laser cutter

10)   It took just over 30 seconds to cut through several layers of newsprint:

11)  Save both the positive and negative shapes for silk-screening:

12)  In this case my shapes were about 6 inches (the size of a dollar bill):

I also used the LaserPecker 2 to cut out a stencil in newsprint.  The maximum cutting length is only 4 inches though:

Stencil cut into newsprint

ready for silk-screening

I also use plastic "Spreaders" rather than squeegees to pull the ink through the screen:

• I heard that Matsui water based silk-screen inks are pretty good

Other SILK-SCREEN Techniques

We also experimented with silk-screen monotypes.  This is when one paints directly on the screen, and then pulls a squeegee over it:

October 9, 2012

Gonzalo making a silk-screen monotype

in Tucson