Silk-Screen Printing

Screen printing has been around for quite a few centuries and even to this day is a widely used practice. Almost anything that can be flattened, can be screen printed. Be it paper, cloth, canvas, wood, metal....

This process is more or less on the lines of developing photographs from a negative. The film is transferred on to a silk cloth, and this cloth becomes the screen (negative) over which colors are spread and printed on to the chosen material.
Hence the term, Silk Screened!

Simple enough, yes!?

Well, it definitely sounds so, BUT imagine when there are multiple prints, here

-every sheet of paper/t-shirts needs to be cut or folded to the same size
-placed correctly under the screen
-every batch of the color mixed (there is ink, solvent) and tested to achieve if not exactly the same, but closest to the desired color.
-the pressure with which the color is spread should be consistent or else color density on the print wouldn't remain the same. If its a big print, like in case of our t-shirts, more than one set of hands maybe required.

All these for a single screen, which prints one color at a time. And now repeat all the above for the second color given to the artwork, and so on.. And with each added screen, alignment or 'registration' as its called in print terminology, gets trickier.

The beauty of this whole process lies in its simplicity. It is easy enough to be set-up within a small space and yet is labour intensive, maybe that's why screen printing makes for a perfect small scale industry. Photos are taken in Johnson's living room at home which doubles up as a silk screen room.

Happy New Year Thoughts from Viakerala

Viakerala is thinking happy thoughts and with these we made a wish board for 2014.

My dear, hai, thanks for you, mega star, jolly, living, famiy, brothers, comrade, cool, king, step ahead, holiday, company, light, yathra - journey, amazing, friends, magic, years, more, cake, new gift, change, trust, local design, jivikum - will live, vijayapikum - will win.

Thank you for your support.

Let's rush Your Highness!

"..let's keep the fancy china for something special, like if the Queen of England comes over" - Monica Geller in Friends. With Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla in town it was no less of a celebration. I was brimming with excitement and not just us, the whole Jew town went Monica about it.

Oh! All the Preps.

And then, the checks

Traffic diverted from the last minute tarred road. Walkie-talkie buzzing Kerala Police checks through out the morning. Bomb detectors. Canines squad. You name it.

Still nothing could dampen the perfect day for me, with Viakerala all decked up he wasn't going to miss us. But my heart sank as I saw the entourage approach, tightly packed in between Scotland Yard protection, who in turn were surrounded by a couple dozen Kerala police and High Commission officials acting as the crowd control, and never mind the harmless paparazzi both local and Royal.
Surely when he stepped up the passage, he read the birthday greetings we'd put up for him. But what could be done with the uptight escorts who ushered him through the corridor at lighting speed? I only had to wait for the right moment to break into the circle. I waved a hi holding the gifts we had wrapped for him in the Viakerala bag and guess what, he recognized me!! giving me a handshake he said, " ..Oh! we'd stopped by". Of course, he couldn't accept the gifts because of security reasons.

Only later I learned that his shopping had been done a couple days in advance, which also coincided with the crazy spike in sales we had this week. I am preparing a list from the sales report of Viakerala, let's see what all reached kutty George Alexander at Buckingham Palace. Yay!!