A brief history of screen printing

Where printed t-shirts come from

Most of you have probably worn T-shirts or other pieces of clothing with a screen print. Most people only associate it with clothing, whereas over the years, it has also been used by artists and printers. This Japanese invention has a long history and its origins can be traced back several thousand years to stencil printing, which was widely used in the Far East, mainly Japan.
In the 12th century, screen printing was perfected by Yuzensai Miyasaki, who began using it to decorate kimonos. Once upon a time, he sat down in his paper house and began to think deeply about how to decorate even more beautifully the Japanese kimonos, which were known and valued throughout the world. He developed a system of intricate stencils and multi-colour printing using them. However, this was not screen printing as we know it today. We had to wait for this one until the 19th century when Zisukeo Hirose invented his special stencil called katagami. The stencil and ink were applied to a mesh of human or animal hair, set in a wooden frame (Read how screen printing works).
Andy Warhol – Marilyn Monroe.
Screen printing then became even more useful. Even more objects could be printed from a single mould. At the beginning of the 20th century, screen printing gained its English-sounding name, silk screen, when Samuel Simon, improved it by replacing hair with silk threads and began using varnish to fill in areas that were not to be printed.
In the middle of the 20th century, this printing technique became the leading technique among artists of the op-art trends. And pop art. Everyone is probably familiar with Andy Warhol’s painting of Marilyn Monroe in several colour versions. It was made using screen printing. It was also of great importance during the Solidarity era and its struggle to pull Poland out of communist Poland. In the 1970s and 1980s, screen printing was used en masse by underground printers who created posters, leaflets and opposition newspapers. Because of the simplicity of its operation, it was the best choice for printers who did not then have access to printing techniques such as offset and drum printers.
The next time you put on a screen-printed T-shirt, you will already be aware of what a piece of history is hidden in the image or text that was made with it. Not to mention the history that cotton has behind it, but about that next time.