Twenty years ago, color came to kitchenware. Hues of every variety suddenly could be found coloring pots and pans, cups and glasses, walls and tiles. This color revolution though, soon broke out of the kitchen and touched curtains, clothes, and even bus stop signs in its multi-chromatic wake. Yet all was accomplished without the loss of one drop of paint. Printing was the method behind this madness.

Printing is an old science, one that has delighted man's eye as well as satisfying his curiosity. In the past, paper was the only suitable material for printing. Businessmen who sold products in plastic, acrylic or glass containers were obliged to use paper labels to identify their wares. Failing that, only spray paint or stroke-by-stroke paint application would do. As a result, when silk screening showed its versatility in the company laboratory, those in the boardroom quickly took note of its potential for use in the "packaging wars."

Known also as halftone printing, silk screening utilizes a cloth screen, full of minute holes. Explains Halftone Printing Director Su Jui-chin, "The process is quite simple. We draw the design or message we want on top of a screen-like cloth. We then apply a special solution to block up whatever part of this cloth doesn't belong on the design. Then we put the cloth on top of the article to be printed, dip a rubber roller in the desired colors and then run it across the cloth. The ink seeps through the cloth, and that's that."

Printers use a number of materials, such as nylon and silk, for silk screening. All that's required is a flexible and absorbent cloth full of minute holes. Because one type of silk offers particularly fine quality prints, the technique is called "silk screening." The name suggests a slow, painstaking process, unable to match the rapid technological progress found in the paper-printing field.

However, silk screening had one great asset: its flexibility. Regardless of the item's material or shape, or the ink used, it could duplicate a pattern and do it well. Among the first to discover this versatility was the postwar American electronics industry, which used the process to color and thus distinguish the myriad of wires then being installed on circuit boards. The electricity conducted was not affected in the slightest, and as the electronics industry boomed, so did silk screening. Another satisfied customer was the surging plastics industry, with its production of containers of every size and shape, which found silk screening an indispensable technique. Gone forever was the need for widespread use of labels and hand-painting.

What surface was suitable for printing? Plastic, metal, glass, ceramics, cloth, timber, leather all passed the test and sometimes could be made to glow in the dark as well. Small wonder one scientist said, "So far, we've only ruled out air and water as being impossible."

Silk screening's triumph was not without its obstacles. Although warmly received and easily mechanized in the factory, its initial output of 3,600 items per hour could not match that of offset printing, another technique developed in the forties, which could turn out hourly over 10,000 sheets. What turned the tables was transfer paper, a membrane-like, invisible material, which after receiving the print, could be made to adhere to the item without a trace. The end result bettered offset printing, producing a more colorful, fine-looking product.

As Yang Ming-tieh, a winner of the National Fine Arts Exhibition Award, points out, there are several reasons for silk screening's popularity. A relatively simple technique, it doesn't require complicated equipment. Surfaces can be flat, convex or concave. Regarding inks and materials, the only limit is the printer's imagination. Unlike offset printing, which requires back-to-front thinking in its execution, silk screening is done directly to the surface, allowing both artist and novice to concentrate completely on the design.

Over the past few years, several artists have explored the possibilities of silk screening, with many shows being held in Taipei. Whether it be in the art gallery or in the marketplace, the color revolution is here to stay.

(Mark Halperin)

[Picture Caption]

One of the steps of silk screening--applying the wet transfer paper.

The colorful patterns on these glasses and pots were applied by silk screening.

In silk screening, fine work produces a fine product.

Compared with other kinds of printing, silk screening is softer, more natural and more able to express delicate nuances of color.

Easy and economical, silk screening is a favorite printing technique with art students.

These colorful prints, with a Chinese flavor, were produced by the magicof silk screening.

One of the steps of silk screening--applying the wet transfer paper.

The colorful patterns on these glasses and pots were applied by silk screening.

In silk screening, fine work produces a fine product.

In silk screening, fine work produces a fine product.

Compared with other kinds of printing, silk screening is softer, more natural and more able to express delicate nuances of color.

Easy and economical, silk screening is a favorite printing technique with art students.

These colorful prints, with a Chinese flavor, were produced by the magic　of silk screening.