The History of Stencils:
500’s – King Theodoric of
the Ostrogoths used a stencil made of gold to sign his name
1800’s – The English used stencils to apply
color by hand to illustrations in printed texts
1920s-30s – During the Art Deco era, the French
used stenciling to produce color separation for book illustrations.
It was similar to the English hand-coloring method but used separate
stencils for everything.
2000’s – Activists can order laser-cut
stencil online. Groups like the Cultural Cryptanalysts Collective and
SprayPaintStencils.com make stencils available for download to encourage
activists to distinguish local sites in their communities.
July 2006 – SprayPaintStencils.com provides free
stencils for people to download or print off.
Sources
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
The University of Delaware Library
The New Mexico Daily Lobo
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