Stenciling

Virtually any paint can be used to stencil with but the two most popular types are Acrylic and Dry-brush Oil. Acrylic paint dries fast, is easy to clean with water and comes in hundreds of different colors. Dry-brush oil paint is non messy, does not smudge or bleed and will adhere to any surface. Markal Paint Stiks fall into this category and will adhere to any wall paint, water or oil based, plastic, melamine, wood, metal, tiles, glass, fabric or almost any other surface inside or out.

Preparation

Always make sure that the surface to be stenciled is clean and properly prepared with no flaking paint. If you need to mark a straight line, do this first with a piece of chalk, pencil is very difficult to remove without damaging the paint or the stencil. Masking tape is often used to attach a stencil, however, if you have ever tried using a Repositionable Contact Spray Adhesive you will never go back to masking tape.

When stenciling a continuous border around a room, start at the corner opposite the door and work out from there. When working on walls, you can position the stencil right under the ceiling molding, at picture rail height 2.2m (7ft4in), dado (chair) rail height 1.2m(4ft), above the skirting board, round the windows and doors or all over like wallpaper.

Instructions

Spray the back of the stencil lightly with spray glue and position the stencil on the chalk line or whatever you are using as a registration mark. Because the glue is repositionable you can move your stencil along 6 or 7 times before it stops sticking, when it does re-spray it. No need to clean in between.

Acrylic Paint: Dip your brush or sponge into the paint and then wipe off most of it on a piece of kitchen paper. If you use too much paint you will find that it bleeds behind the stencil, giving the pattern very ragged edges. Apply the paint using an up and down stippling motion, start on the outside of each of the stencils cut outs and work your way in towards the middle.

If you are using masking tape to hold the stencil in place, you must push the stencil tightly against the surface so no paint can seep down the back. When using more than one color, wait for the first color to dry before you apply the second color, always use a clean brush or sponge. The lightest color should be applied first.

Using liquid paint for stenciling can be problematic, my advice is to keep your brushes and stencil very clean and use as little paint as possible. If you are not sure, wipe off a bit more, you can always add some if the color is not right. Stencils look better when the color is built up in layers.

Clean-up: Wash your stencil frequently in hot soapy water, especially when changing color. Don't forget to check for paint on the back of the stencil. Brushes can also be washed in hot soapy water and dried on kitchen paper.

Dry-Brush: Peel off the skin from the paint, dip in your brush and swirl onto a palette or the corner of the stencil, where there are no holes. Markal Paint Stiks can be rubbed directly onto the palette or stencil corner. Using a circular motion transfer the paint to the stencil, keep the brush in an upright position at 90° to the stencil.

One paint stik or pot of dry-brush paint can give you many different shades of the same color. The harder you press the darker and more definite the color will become. For a really light fresco look apply the dry paint with a sponge.

Clean-up: To remove paint and glue from your stencils and brushes soak them in turpentine for a few minutes. Using a stencil brush sweep the paint off your stencil and finish off with kitchen paper. You can also use kitchen paper for the brushes; just keep rubbing until no more color comes off.

Fabric Painting: Always prewash fabric to remove size and softener, these products coat the fibers and then the paint sticks to the coating and not the material fibers. Apply the stencil as per normal; just put some extra masking tape around the edges of the stencil. This is partly to help it stay in place and also in case you go over the edge with your paint (you can't get it out of fabric).

If you are using fabric paint, which can only be used on natural fibers, remember to clean your stencil back and front every time you use it, you must clean it before you reposition. Markal Paint Stiks are less messy and do not make the material hard, they can be used on almost any kind of material. Paint stiks work wonderfully on polyester, silk, voile, cotton, linen, etc., when you paint onto silk and voile with them the paint remains soft and it looks like the designs were printed on by the manufacturer.

Finishing: Before you can wash or dry-clean the fabric, you have just stenciled, you must heat set it, this can be done with a dry iron (no steam). Place a piece of absorbent paper over the design and with the iron as hot as the fabric will allow, press for 10 seconds on either side. Alternatively you can let the paint dry for 3 days and then put the item in the tumble dryer for 30mins.

Sandblasted Glass: To get a sandblasted effect on your windows or doors, without having to go to the expense of real sandblasting, all you need is a white paint stik and some time. Attach your stencil to the glass using spray glue, use very little and low tack first(stick your stencil to a towel so that most of the wet glue comes off and does not get left behind on the glass).

Paint through the stencil using an up and down stippling motion. When you have finished leave the stencil in place and mask round the edge with paper or card. To seal the paint you will need a Clear Lacquer Spray, try not to get it on the clear glass. Spray over the stencil lightly from about 30cm (12in), allow to dry and repeat twice. Let the paint and lacquer dry for at least 3 days before cleaning the window with any preparatory window cleaner.

Reverse Stenciling: Using a large stencil brush stipple, with the white paint stik, over the whole pane of glass and wait 2-3 days for it to dry. Once it is completely dry and does not smudge when you touch it, fix your stencil in place. The idea is to remove the paint from the holes in the stencil.

Dip a cotton bud (ear bud) in turpentine and then dry off on kitchen paper. Run the damp bud down the middle of a hole in the stencil and remove the paint with dry kitchen paper. When you have removed all the paint from inside the stencil, you can either leave it blank or stencil in other colors (they are very bright against the white). Finally, take down the stencil and spray the whole window pane with clear lacquer to seal in the paint. Wait at least 3 days before cleaning the window.

Happy Stenciling - be Warned, it's Addictive
www.wallandmural-stencils.com

Hi,
This is quite a good stenciling video, I would just like to add 2 comments that will make it easier:

• Use spray glue to hold the stencil in place


• If you use Shiva Artists Paint Stiks the paint will not run or smudge.

Stencilling is a simple method of repeating a design by means of a cut out shape; the word stencil means the outline of an image. Using laser cut Mylar film and paint; it is easy for even the beginner to produce stencil work of a very High Quality on Furniture, Walls, Floors, Fabrics, Windows and almost any other surface. The secrets is in the paint you use, professionals nearly always use the non-messy dry brush method which we talk about in the instruction book, How to Stencil-the easy way.

The earliest examples of stenciling are found in Palaeolithic cave paintings dating from as early as 30,000 BC to 9,000 BC. Some of the first stencils were cut from leaves. The Fiji Island natives traditionally used bamboo and banana leaves to make their stencils. They cut holes in the leaves and forced vegetable dyes through the leaf openings onto their bark cloth or "Tapa". The Eskimos of Baffin Island are said to have used dried sealskin but unfortunately nothing remains of these early stencils as they were made from perishable materials.

In the ancient world stencils were used in the decoration of Egyptian tombs. The artist would stencil an outline of the figure or hieroglyph onto the wall, after which a sculptor would incise the outline in low relief. Once this was done a thin layer of stucco was added to receive the paint. The Egyptians tended to use very bright primary colours mainly red, blue and yellow.

In ancient Greece stencils were used to outline the mosaic designs. In classical Rome the letters, painted on signboards, directing people to the Games were also made with stencils. Many different stencils were also employed in the painting of the Murals that both the Greeks and Romans loved so much.

More durable stencils of varnished mulberry fibres were made in China and Japan and were used mainly for decorating cloth. Then during the period of the six dynasties of China (AD500 - 600) a new use was found for them, the mass production of images of Buddha.

Katagami stencils have been used by the Japanese for over one thousand years to pattern textiles in a technique called Katazome. This delicate dye resist technique, or reverse stenciling, traditionally involves applying rice paste through a stencil onto silk. There is then a time consuming period of realigning the stencil and applying more paste until the pattern is repeated over the whole piece of material. The silk is then dyed, repeatedly, usually with an indigo pigment and finally the paste is removed, revealing an exquisite pattern underneath.

In the traditional Japanese stencil making process many thin sheets of mulberry bark are cured in persimmon juice. They are then stacked together and cut with a sharp curved blade. In this way the artist could cut several stencils at a time and know that the pattern would be exactly the same on all of them. With the invention of paper artisans started cutting 50-60 tissue thin sheets of paper at one time.

Paper was invented in China around AD200 and some time between AD500-600 the Chinese started cutting paper stencil patterns for embroidery. Cut paper stencils were used to place patterns onto material and porcelain and also to dye textiles.

One major difficulty with early stencils was the isolated parts of a design, such as the center of the letter O which would fall out as soon as the outer ring was cut. The solution the Japanese came up with was quite ingenious. They would hold loose pieces in place by gluing them to the main body of the stencil with human hair. Later on they used silk thread thus forming a bridge, but a bridge so fine and strong that when the stenciling was finished it was all but invisible. This was the for-runner of Silk Screening.

From Asia, the knowledge of stencils and paper cutting spread gradually along the trade routes to the Middle East, reaching Turkey by about the 8th century. During the Middle Ages, conquests and crusades spread the art of paper cutting and stenciling throughout Europe. By the 16th century, stencilling was being used along with wood blocks and brush painting for religious pictures and illuminated manuscripts.

Once the Printing Press had been invented, pattern books full of stencil designs were circulated throughout Europe. Wood craftsmen found that these stencil patterns could be used to make veneers. In fact, until the late 17th century, many patterns used for furniture, embroidery and stenciled art could be traced back to their paper cutting origins.

Stencils, at this time, were also being used to make playing cards and from there it was but a short jump for French craftsmen in Rousen during the 17th century, to begin producing wallpaper in the form of stencilled segments called dominoes. These wallpaper dominoes were much cheaper than the expensive cloth that had formally been used to cover the walls.

The paper was not produced, as it is today, in 10m(33ft) lengths. But, being made by hand, it came in segments 1-1.25m(3-4ft) long by 46cm(18in) wide. The stenciling was done before the paper was hung and unfortunately the paperhangers did not seem to pay much attention to the designs or try and line them up properly. This led to a rather patchwork effect.

The early settlers in North America, who could not afford imported wallpaper or decorated furniture, used direct stencilling. From about 1760-1840 itinerant travelling artisans, who took their brushes, pigments and stencils with them as they moved about the homes of New England, did the stenciling.

The surviving stencil designs from this era have been attributed to only about 15 artists. One of the best know and most prolific of these travelling artisans was Moses Eaton jr., who painted and stenciled in New England from about 1800-1840. Stencilling remained the usual method of decorating walls until wallpaper became cheap at the end of the 19th century.

By the early 20th century stencilling had all but vanished as a decorating tool and was only kept alive by the Arts & Crafts Movement and the Bloomsbury Set. Although in 1899 the writer Rudyard Kipling, of Jungle Book fame, described a 'cosy study' as one "decorated with a dado, a stencil and cretonne hangings."

In the USA films were just coming into fashion and people wanted to see them in color. The hand coloring of frames was a common and widely accepted practice in the early cinema. The films screened by Edison at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in 1896 were already coloured in this fashion. In 1906 with the introduction by Pathé of a mechanised process for coloring frames, using a series of stencils, it's popularity only increased.

Stenciling re-emerged for a short time during the Art Deco era of the 1920s and 30s. With the style of the day being spare, and ornamental forms so popular in books and advertising, it was considered chic to have stencils in your home. In 1936 even Harpers Bazaar used a stencil for its logo.

At this time French publishers, influenced by Japanese printed textiles, were using stenciling to produce color separations for book illustrations. Their technique was similar to the hand coloring common in England a hundred years earlier. Craftsmen reproducing works by Fauvist painters such as Derain, cut separate stencils for every tint. Stenciled reproductions of Picasso's designs for the Ballet RuPablo in 1920 are among the more notable examples of fine printing during this era. As printing technology developed however, the art and craft of stenciling in book design declined.

By the late 1970s stencilling was starting to come back into fashion, people were fed up with wallpaper and wanted to do something for themselves, crafts were in again. At this time due in part to the influence and persistence of ladies like Adele Bishop many future stencillers were made aware of the craft.

From banana leaves to mulberry bark to paper to woodblocks, stencil card and now polyester film. Today's stencils come in thousands of different designs from hundreds of different designers. They go from 1 layer, and because of the clear polyester film (Mylar) now used, to multi layers. A simple flower border to an intricate mural can easily be made with a stencil or two.

Laser cut to ensure perfection every time, registration marks to get the positioning exactly right, paints that are dry and don't bleed, what more can we ask for. It's so easy now!