Work on a serigraph begins when the serigrapher separates the colors in the original painting. The serigrapher must literally recreate the entire work, while recognizing how to reinterpret the original painting using generally 100 or fewer colors. A stencil for each individual color is transferred to a screen, which is typically made of silk, nylon or wire mesh stretched tightly across a frame. The ink is dragged over the screen with a squeegee and forced through the open areas of the stencil. In this way, the image is transferred to a piece of paper positioned beneath the screen. Each successive color requires a new screen and stencil to slowly build the image layer upon layer, creating the rich painterly textures that set serigraphs apart from other forms of image reproduction.