TO STENCIL.....

WHO: Literally anyone can stencil, children love it, decorators are loving it more, fabric designers and t-shirt manufacturers, illustrators, DIY home decorators and graffiti artists, if you can hold a paintbrush, sponge or spraycan you are a candidate! 

WHEN: When you want to be unique. When you want to dulicate a design quickly, easily and precisely, when you want to create an impact and get an effective result first time, every time.

WHY: Because its an efficient and easy way to decorate just about anything. Because it's not difficult to acheive professional and truly unique results. 

WHERE: Any flat surface. Walls, fabric, pots, wood, metal. Maybe you want to decorate your bedroom, a t-shirt, a cake, furniture, your potting shed, tiles, an art canvass, soft furnishings, greetings cards, your kitchen cupboards... the list is endless. Basically stencils can be used anywhere.

WHICH: Stencils can be made from paper, card or plastic, we believe Mylar is the best type of stencil material, we have been cutting stencils for over 10 years and haven't come across anything better. The design you choose is a matter of personal taste and practicality, there is no level of difficulty in stencilling, if you can stencil you can stencil, it's simply a matter of following a few golden rules and honing your skills...

HOW:

Secure the stencil in place with masking tape or spraymount.

Apply an absolute minimum of paint to a stencil brush or small peice of sponge.

Paint the stencil.

Remove the stencil.

Reposition and start again!

Ok so this is cutting it down to the basics, there are many variables, such as surface texture and finish, type of paint, size of brush, painting techniqes, colours, shading, repeating patterns and spacing, overlays etc etc...

Ideally the surface you are going to paint needs to be flat, dry and preferably matt. (Shiny surfaces do not absorb paint so well and will need a little more time to paint)

For walls use acrylic or emulsion paints (match pots are brilliant for this). Paintsticks are great too, these are oil-based and extremely easy to use and very effective. We have used paintsticks in all our design illustrations. Unfortunately we no longer stock them but a Google search for Markal Paintstiks may help.

For fabric use acrylic paints. If you are going to need to wash the fabric (ie t-shirts) you'll need to add fabric medium or use fabric paints. Usually it's  advisable to prewash the fabric to remove factory dressings and then to heat set the paint when dry (follow paint manufacturers instructions for this).

Other types of paint can be used such as eggshell, spraypaint and even woodstain.

Brushes need to be soft and of good quality. Stencil brushes have a flat end and come in many sizes, choose size acording to the size of the stencil, our stencil brushes are double ended, medium one end and small the other, you will need one brush per colour.

Low tack masking tape is better if you want to avoid peeling away the plaster when you remove the stencil! Tip, make ordinary masking tape low tack by sticking it to your clothes a few times. Spraymount is great when sencilling fabric as it stops the fabric moving around under the stencil when you are painting it.

Above all NEVER use more paint than is absolutely necessary, too much paint will result in bleeding beneath the stencil and a 'blobby' finish.

Keep your stencils clean to avoid paint build up.