HISTORY
Serigraphy is a combination of two Greek words, seicos, meaning silk, and graphos, meaning writing. The word is credited to Carl Zigrasser, curator of prints at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, who first used the term in the late 1930’s. The reason behind calling a print a serigraph was to designate it as an original silk-screen print created by an artist from the artists own design. The term serigraph was used in hope that it would distinguish the “creative art” in silk-screen from the commercial or reproductive uses of the process

The practice of serigraphy, also known as silk-screen, has no known origin But stencil use can be traced back to 9000 BC in the decoration of Egyptian tombs, Greek mosaics, and in the Roman publicizing of the Olympic Games. It was Japanese artists that turned serigraphy / silk-screen into a complex practice. Japanese artists developed intricate templates made of silk to hold the stencils. This new perfected way of working began the evolution into modern day serigraphy/silk-screen art.

IN BORDETT’S PRACTICE

Serigraphy, as Bordett defines it, is a stencil from of printmaking where the stencil can be created a number of different ways depending on the complexity of the work. Bordett coats his screens with a light sensitive chemical and then the screen is exposed to the design that he has created. The screen is then washed out. Where ever the design is the screen will open up and all other areas will harden with the chemical, thus creating the stencil. The basic printing process is the forcing of ink through the stencil design onto the paper with a squeegee. Each color must be printed in the same place and in the same order for each print in an edition to resemble the original. The colors, however, can be printed in any order. A separate stencil is needed for every single color printed. Some of Bordett’s prints can use up to forty separate colors being printed on to complete an image. The colors used are all custom mixed, and are tested during the printing process to achieve the value and hue that Bordett needs for his prints. Bordett makes use of transparent inks so that he can layer colors on top of other colors creating different variations. By using both opaque and transparent inks he multiplies the number of colors he is actually printing. From the creation of the designs, to the transfer of the screen, the mixing of colors, and finally the printing of an edition the printing process is extremely labor intensive. Typically Bordett prints 10% more of what he wants for an edition size. (Editions can run 60-200 prints in an edition.) Large prints can take 2-3 months to complete while a small print will be finished in as little as two weeks.