Inside a 29-Colour Screenprint: The Craft Behind Sam Leitch's Limited Edition Nothing for Granted
A 29-colour screenprint is not made in a day, and it isn't made by a machine. Every one of those 29 colours in Nothing for Granted is a separate hand-pulled layer, printed one at a time, in a fixed sequence, on archival Fabriano Artistico cotton rag paper.
It's the most technically complex work I've released and it's worth explaining exactly what that complexity means for the piece itself, because "29 colours" sounds abstract until you understand what it actually buys you as a collector.
I'm Sam Leitch, a contemporary New Zealand artist and hand-pulled screenprint artist based in Auckland. Nothing for Granted was produced in partnership with Artrite Screen Printing, and this piece is as much a record of their craft as it is of mine.
What "29 Colours" Actually Means for What You're Buying
In screenprinting, each colour requires its own screen, its own hand-mixed ink, and its own separate pass through the press. A 29-colour print means 29 individual screens, each aligned with total precision to the layers already printed beneath it.
One misaligned screen, one inconsistency in pressure or ink viscosity, and the whole print is compromised (which is exactly why so few studios attempt work at this scale!).
This is fundamentally different from a giclée print, which uses archival pigment inks laid down in a single digital pass. A giclée print is a different kind of craft: precise, high-quality, and its own valid production method.
A hand-pulled screenprint like this one is built layer by layer, by hand, with no shortcuts available at any stage. That's what separates a six-colour hand-pulled process, already a serious undertaking, from a 29-colour one, which multiplies every point of possible error nearly fivefold.
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Why Fabriano Artistico Cotton Rag Paper Protects Your Investment
Every layer of ink in Nothing for Granted sits on Fabriano Artistico cotton rag paper — the archival standard used across this limited edition screenprint work. Cotton rag paper is fundamentally different from the wood pulp paper used in most commercial printing. Wood pulp contains lignin, a compound that breaks down over time and causes paper to yellow and become brittle. Cotton rag paper has none of that; it's acid-free, UV-stable, and built to hold its structure and colour for generations rather than years.
"Twenty-nine passes of ink is a significant amount of material sitting on a single sheet. The paper underneath has to hold its integrity through every one of those passes without warping or degrading a single layer."
That matters more, not less, on a print this layered. Museum-quality fine art printing depends on getting this foundation right before a single colour is even mixed which is exactly what protects a piece like this for the decades it will spend on your wall.
The Hand-Mixed Ink Difference
Every colour in this collection was hand-mixed specifically for the piece - not pulled from a standardised swatch, but mixed and tested against the previous layers until the tone was exactly right. This is part of why hand-pulled screenprints have a depth and vibrancy that's difficult to replicate digitally: the ink sits on the paper with a physical thickness and texture, layer stacking on layer, rather than being deposited as a flat, uniform coat.
Working across 9 colourways compounds this further. Each colourway required its own complete set of hand-mixed inks. Artrite's team wasn't just executing one 29-colour sequence, they were executing 9 distinct variations of it, each with its own colour logic.
Registration: The Part No One Sees (But You're Paying For)
The technical term for aligning each screen precisely with the layers beneath it is registration, and on a 29-colour print, registration is the single greatest point of risk in the entire process.
Every screen has to land in exactly the same position as the one before it, over and over, 29 times, without visible drift. A registration error that would be barely noticeable on a six-colour print becomes compounding and obvious on a print with this many layers.
This is the part of screenprinting that rarely gets discussed publicly, because it isn't visually dramatic... It's slow, exacting, and easy to take for granted precisely because, when it's done right, you never notice it at all. It's also exactly the kind of skill that separates a genuinely master-level studio from a shortcut-taking one, which is why this collection was only possible working with a team like Artrite Screen Printing.
Considering a piece for your collection? Every detail above is part of what a signed, numbered edition is actually certifying.
Nothing for Granted - Inception
Part of why Nothing for Granted included live screen printing demonstrations at Allpress Studio during its exhibition run was to make this process visible rather than abstract. Watching a screen come down, ink pulled across it by hand, layer settling onto the layers already there. It changes how a finished print reads. What looks like a flat, finished object on a wall is actually the accumulated result of dozens of individual, deliberate decisions.
Why This Level of Craft Matters for Collectors
A print produced this way carries a different kind of value than a mass-produced reproduction. Every layer represents time, skill, and risk that can't be automated away, and every one of the 9 colourways in this collection exists because a small, highly skilled team was willing to take on that risk 9 separate times.
For collectors, that's part of what a signed and numbered edition is actually certifying not just scarcity, but a process that can't be reproduced casually, on a paper built to carry it for generations.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many screens does a 29-colour screenprint require? Each colour requires its own individual screen, meaning a 29-colour print like Nothing for Granted involves 29 separate screens, each precisely registered against the layers printed before it.
What paper is used for Nothing for Granted? The collection is printed on Fabriano Artistico cotton rag paper, an archival, acid-free, UV-stable paper used across this limited edition screenprint work.
How is a hand-pulled screenprint different from a giclée print? A hand-pulled screenprint is built layer by layer using individually mixed inks and hand-aligned screens, while a giclée print uses archival pigment inks applied in a single digital pass. Both are valid archival processes, but the production methods are fundamentally different.
Why does a 29-colour print take longer to produce than a simpler print? Every additional colour adds a full production step — a new screen, a new hand-mixed ink, and a new registration pass so a 29-colour print multiplies both the production time and the risk of error compared to a simpler edition.
Where can I see the finished Nothing for Granted collection? The full 9 colourways are available online now. It is also on display at Allpress Studio until July 20th.
See the Craft for Yourself
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