Playing with Stencils Exploring Repetition Pattern and Personal Designs

146 Pages·2012·41.14 MB·English

by  Rice

Playing with

Playing with
Exploring Repetition, Pattern, and Personal Designs

Contents
09
Introduction .......................................................................
1
Getting Started: Designing, Enlarging, 10
Transferring, Cutting, and Burning .........................
2
Projects to Play With: 22
Inspiring Stencil Ideas ..................................................
3
Gallery: Influential Contemporary 104
Artists Who Use Stencils .............................................
126
Templates ..........................................................................
140
Artist Directory ................................................................
141
Resources ..........................................................................
142
About the Author ..........................................................
142
Acknowledgments ......................................................
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Introduction
stencil is simply a template used to repeat the same drawing, pattern,
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or shape over and over. Stenciling is one of the oldest art techniques
known to man. Prehistoric peoples used their own hands as stencils
in cave paintings. There is evidence of stencils being used in ancient
Egypt and China. In the Renaissance, stencils were used to reproduce playing
cards as well as the very first flocked wallpaper. In colonial America, the high
prices of fancy European household goods inspired American crafters to develop
a stencil form and style still recognizable today.
By the 1800s, manufacturers of household goods were using books, magazine articles, and films. Some of these artists exhibit
stencils in mass-produced items. This continued until the in well-respected galleries and museums. Regardless of one’s
early 1900s when silk screening replaced stenciling in most opinion on the validity of street art, it is undeniable that the
commercial applications. street art stencil movement has raised the bar significantly for
The Art Deco era of the 1930s and ’40s witnessed a resur- stencil design. What was considered a complicated cut or design
gence of stencil use and design, but as other print methods were ten years ago is now simple and common.
developed and advanced, stenciling fell out of favor. The 1970s The current DIY craft movement is just another force
craft movement brought stencils back to the forefront for use in moving the ancient art and craft technique of stenciling to new
interior design and in arts and crafts. levels. Consumer interest has led to new tools and techniques
Although there are examples of stencils being used in graffiti that make stenciling easier than it ever was. This new technology,
art as early as the late 1960s, the early 1980s was when the coupled with literally thousands of years and dozens of cultural
movement really began to pick up momentum. Today, there is a traditions of stencil designs to be inspired by, make it a fantastic
worldwide subculture of graffiti stencil artists that has inspired time to cut a stencil.
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