DIY Del Ray: Ancient Art of Screen Printing Lives on in Del Ray

If it weren’t for my acquaintance with Sara, my daughter’s art teacher from the Art League in Old Town, I may have never had the pleasure of meeting her friends Charles Robertson and Tim Lovelace. These two young and extremely talented artists are running their own silkscreen printing business—Sediment Press—out of the living room of a one-bedroom apartment in Del Ray.

Sara hooked us up, and last weekend Katie and I had the pleasure of watching Tim and Charles work on one of their recent commissions—a set of one-of-a-kind invitations to a birthday party. By following along while they made one of the unique and gorgeous screen-printed cards, Katie and I learned more about the precise and captivating (and ancient) art of screen printing. You can see the entire step-by-step process on DIY Del Ray.

Charles and Tim trade off and can each do every part of the the work, but they also bring different talents and skills to their partnership. As a fine artist by training, Charles does a lot of the original design work, whereas Tim, who trained in commercial printing processes, handles a lot of the mechanical work.

What I found surprising is how scalable the process can be. After they design and produce one or two prints, it’s no big deal for them to create hundreds. They can do limited editions, but if you think you’ll pay more for a large quantity of the handmade prints, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. If you want to order a large quantity of concert posters, say, or event invitations, or business cards, each one a collectible in its own right, Charles and Tim are equipped to do the job. In this small-space studio, their business is currently fulfilling a commission to hand-print packaging for the Handmade Tea company.

As the owner of the tea company said about hiring Tim and Charles, “I also wanted to improve tea packaging and the experience of opening your tea package for the first time. I feel that quality tea is an art and it should be encased in equally beautiful artwork.”

We look forward to seeing their future work. You can get in touch with Tim and Charles to discuss your own project idea at contact[at]sedimentpress.com and see what’s going on under their roof on any given day on their Web site.

View more studio tours at DIY Del Ray.