Screenprint Editions from the Shared Studio
Colour layers, drying racks and the slow work of registration
A three-colour screenprint does not come together in an afternoon here. Each layer is pulled, then left to cure before the next one goes down, so a single edition can stretch across a full week. On humid days it stretches further, and the drying rack by the back wall becomes the real clock of the studio. The screens are exposed in a small darkroom behind the press area, and a misjudged exposure rarely announces itself straight away. It shows up two layers later as a soft edge or a clogged line, and by then the sheet is already part of the run.
Editions are kept deliberately small so that colour holds steady from the first sheet to the last. Anything that drifts in registration or inking is set aside and marked as a proof rather than folded into the numbered set. Most of what sits in the rack near the entrance comes from exactly these runs.
Colour, one layer at a time
A flat field of ink looks simple on the wall. Getting it there means deciding the order of the layers first, because a pale ground under a dark shape reads differently than the reverse. Each pull is checked against the sheet before it, and the squeegee angle changes the density more than most people expect.
Drying time sets the schedule
The rack decides what can be worked on next. Pull a second colour too early and the first one smears under the mesh; wait too long and the studio loses the day. Registration marks are aligned by eye against the corner of the sheet, and small shifts between prints are treated as part of the edition rather than a fault to be hidden.
Where the proofs come from
Sheets that drift, or that carry a lighter inking than the rest, are pulled out of the numbered run and kept as proofs. They are genuine prints from the same screens, just not part of the final set. The rack by the door is restocked after each edition is finished.