Screen Printing

Hi, I want to screen print tee shirts @ home as an earning hobby. I do the designs on photoshop - can u tell me the easiest and cheapest way of going around this ?

Okay, I'm not a pro, and I've only screened a few times, but here's how you do it. Materials cost around $40 to start. (I'll take photos if I ever do this again.)

Materials - you can get them from an art supply shop:
1 Frame and Screen ($12)
1 Black Fabric Ink ($4)
1 Squeegee that fits the frame ($8)
1 Boxed kit of photosensitive emulsion ($15)
1 Sheet tracing paper
1 piece of clean glass or plastic that can fit in the screen and cover most of the area
1 sheet black construction paper that you'll use as backing on the screen during exposure

The popular brand for these things is Speedball. There are also beginners' kits that cost a little less. It's your call.

You'll need the following conditions. A fairly dark room with a dark cupboard, like a bathroom, where you'll dry the prepared screen. Daylight, to expose the screen. A high contrast black and white image, and either a photocopier or a laser printer.

First, you prepare your image and make a positive. What I did was, using a little "post it note" glue, adhered the top edge of the tracing paper to a thicker sheet of paper. This can be fed into a laser printer. If you don't do this, the paper will probably jam.

If you don't have a laser, you can use a photocopier. Just test it first to see if it'll feed the tracing paper.

If the image is light in spots, you can darken the positive with a sharpie or some india ink.

Next, you prepare the screen. You mix three teaspoons of the blue emulsion with one teaspoon of the activator, and stir well to mix it up (it'll be green). You should mix this in a disposable cup with a spoon you don't need.

Spoon a little of this across one edge of the screen, and using a cardboard edge, draw the emulsion down, filling the screen with the stuff. Repeat on both sides until the entire surface is covered with an even, green layer of emulsion. When you're done, double check to make sure there are no "holes" in the emulsion. (Fill those in!)

Put this in the cupboard in the dark room, and let it dry for around 30 minutes to an hour. (Turn the fan on, to speed drying.) Whatever you do, don't expose it to light.

When you're positioning the image, you have to work pretty fast, and in a dim light.

Take the prepared image, and cut it so it'll fit into the screen. Tape the black construction paper to the back of the screen. Put the image into the screen, using a little glue stick if necessary, and then put the glass on top. The glass holds the image down.

Now, you have to rush outside and put the screen in the sun, facing the sun. You need to expose it for around one minute. You'll see the color of the green change. Then, you need to carefully bring the whole thing in - don't move the glass or you'll expose new areas - into the bathroom.

Remove the black paper, the glass, and the image. You'll clearly see the image on the screen, as a pale green silhouette.

Turn the shower on, with cold water. Stick the screen under the shower. You'll see the pale green stuff go white and melt away, while the exposed emulsion resists the water.

If the image isn't flowing away easily, you can use a used toothbrush to gently scrub away the unwanted emulsion.

Look at a light through the screen, and ascertain what areas need to be cleaned up more. You can't neglect to do this.

Once the screen's washed, you just set it aside to dry, before printing.

Pulling screens is an art that you can learn only through experience. So, that first project should be scrap fabric, not your shirt.

First, you lay down a spoon of ink in a line, across the top edge. Then, using the squeegee, you "pull the ink across the screen." This first pass, don't have the screen down on the shirt. Rather, it should be raised a little. Your goal is to fill the screen with ink.

The second pass starts with putting the inked screen onto the shirt surface. Then, you pull the sqeegee down again, but this time, with a little force.

And, that's it!

You have to dry the shirt for around two hours.

To "set" the image, you have to iron it first to melt the inks a little. Don't be a fool - iron the backside of the surface, not the front side!

Thanks to Caroline for teaching me this.