'It’s a real tactile art form': Durham Scrap Exchange to host screen printing class

The Scrap Exchange in Durham is hosting a beginning screen printing class on Saturday, Oct. 26.

The screen printing class will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Attendees to the screen printing class will get the opportunity to use traditional screen printing methods and participants can take home the print they create. 

Robby Poore, design manager at UNC-Chapel Hill, will teach the upcoming beginning screen printing class. He said he started screen printing in 1982 as a hobby in high school. Poore said he now teaches classes and workshops at the Duke Arts Annex and through The Scrap Exchange. 

“Screen printing is one of those wonderful things where you actually get hands-on art,” Poore said.

Screen printing is an art form in which a window is blocked out using a screen filler on a stretched frame of fabric or the screen. 

The first step in screen printing is painting a design on a screen. Then, ink is put on the screen, and it is intensely pulled through a squeegee, a tool with a flat rubber blade designed to control liquid on a flat surface.

Everything that was not painted on the screen will now be printed with ink on a piece of paper underneath the screen, Poore said. 

“It’s not like running things through a xerox or a laser printer,” Poore said. “You actually mix the ink yourself, you draw the design, then you pull the ink through the screen and you make your own print.”

Screen printing is a versatile form of art because you can make prints on many different mediums, Poore said. 

“It’s a real tactile art form,” Poore said. “If you’re making a poster or a CD cover or notecards, you’re making them by hand and with actual ink.”

Poore said screen printing is a wonderful experience, and UNC students should come out to the event. 

Andreas Schrank, a graduate student at UNC, said he has enjoyed past screen printing experiences and wishes to attend the beginning screen printing class.

“It is a super cool experience, and it allows me to feel very creative, even though I generally am not,” Schrank said.

The Scrap Exchange is a nonprofit organization created in 1991 that seeks to promote a creative, environmentally aware community at a reused art center, said Kelly Jones, outreach and education manager at the Scrap Exchange.

The Scrap Exchange holds a variety of creative classes on rotation, Jones said. 

“There’s quilting, several sewing classes, there’s even a bookmaking class, which is fascinating,” Poore said. 

Attendees should be at least 16 years old and must register in advance. 

The classes change each month, but screen printing is offered almost every month, Jones said.

“It’s an opportunity to get together with people to learn a new skill or trade,” Jones said. “It's taught by local artists that have lots of experience in the field, so it's a really good experience to gain from that wealth of knowledge.”

arts@dailytarheel.com