Savoir-faire: screen printing

Screen printing is an ancestral technique which can be traced back to the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), in China. It is a distinct printing process where ink is transferred onto a substrate - a base material, such as fabric - using mesh stretched over a frame. The craft was passed on from one generation to the next, eventually reaching Europe via the Silk Road. It is near Lake Como, Italy, where the country’s first factory dyers once lived, that Dedar installed its headquarters. Today, two dozen artisans and technicians collaborate to produce the new collection in an atelier nearby. To begin, an immaculate linen canvas is stretched onto the printing table, perfectly tensed, while the design of each pattern is transferred on a fine mesh protected by a metal frame. At the back of the atelier, raw pigments are mixed by hand to obtain the desired tone, density and luminosity. Dyes become sheer, opaque, metallic. Colours are endlessly tested, adjusted, and compared until the perfect combination is found. It takes skills, intuition and sometimes a bit of luck to create the perfect sequence. Once the colourway is ready, squeegees are used to push the coloured ink through the screen, using one colour per frame at the time. A pattern emerges slowly, sometimes requiring up to ten frames, each hue revealing another piece of the final design. Screen printing became a commercial technique of choice to affix logos on t-shirts in the 1960s, at a time when Pop Artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein turned serigraphy into a celebrated art form. Dedar has long stood to reconcile both worlds, enabling designers to create spaces where art and craft coexist to transcend an interior. The new collection of screen-printed textile wallcoverings celebrates the expert hands of the artisan who brings magical birds and paradisiac landscapes to life. It is here, amongst pinned mood boards, pigment mixers and rolls of yarns that impossible ideas mixed with ancient techniques. | Photo credit: Giulio Ghirardi