(no subject)
Well, I finally went ahead and got through it. The long drawn out story is
I made my first screens using the photo emulsion method last night, mixing the emulsion and sensitizer that we ordered online. The goal was to be able to make a screen so I could print t-shirts for my mom's 30 year college reunion. Simple enough - I've made screens before using less than ideal materials, manually blocking off the areas not to be printed using a paint brush and paints. The screen worked for what I wanted - a very beat-up looking print, which matches my goal, but for my mom's she wanted nice crisp lines and it to be more consistent.
To the fabric store. We purchased Chiffon, which I read works on a few websites, although eventually I want to purchase the screen mesh, but we were in a hurry and its not really available locally anyways. I used 2x2s that we had laying around to whip out three screens last night, and it worked beautifully. After making a sufficient mess in the kitchen, and after about 12:30am, we were satisfied with the results and set them to dry over night in the dark hall closet.
In the morning, I began the image burning process. All good and fun. I followed instructions I had read for the emulsion I purchased. 150W normal incandescent bulb, 12" away, 10 minutes.
This was the end result. No good. At first the letters opened up nicely, but after some more water, all of the screen began opening up. Fortunately I thought to myself "If a little comes out, why not try and salvage the screen and blast it all out". So I did. 5 minutes later, I was back to the drawing board as to exposing the screen.
I ended up using a 500W halogen fixture, about 18" off the screen for 15 minutes.
This was the result of that one. It turned out fairly well, though after washing, a few areas opened up that werent supposed to. Unfortunately, the rest of the screen was far beyond saving using just water so I said screw it and decided to try and use paint to cover up the little holes that didnt stay closed. It worked, except in one area. Just chocking this one up to experience seeing as the rest of the screen cannot be salvaged BUT the areas that did print looked amazing and knocked my mom off her feet. She was blown away with the quality of the print.
This is out ghetto fabulous setup. I've seen better, I've seen worse, but this works perfectly for us.
This is the screen I made in order to print shirts as a joke for work. We dont have uniforms, but I think it'll be fun to walk into work and have this snazzy shirt all made up.
A test print we did on a white t-shirt with black ink, just to make sure the screen was up to par with my standards. Hahaa, thats funny considering I lack all standards beyond legibility of the print.
And now the final print, on the final t-shirt. I am going to use white ink for this print, given that its a black t-shirt. I'm glad I ordered one to many when I printed the LPC t-shirts earlier, because I happened to have one properly sized black t-shirt ready for this.
And the final result. I dont know why my camera insisted on creating the holy glowing around the text, however, every shot I took had it. The text on the bottom is a bit blurry for my liking, but I think I know how to fix it in the future. It says "division of engineering and computing services" under the huge DECS. We dont have a logo for work, so I just made something up.
And there you have it. My first screen printing attempts. I'm incredibly pleased with the quality and ease of this method that I'll likely be looking into ordering more emulsion and sensitizer. I've heard good things about the Ulano DTX (I believe), the one with sensitizer already mixed in. And its not a bad price either, so I think thats going to be an up and coming purchase.
I'm so incredibly happy. We redid the screen for my mom and it works like a charm. I did manage to screw it up a bit, however, it still works like it didnt have the problem. The next step is to print up ~35 of the shirts for her, and then I'll start experimenting with colors. That'll be fun, especially if I can do some fun things.
I made my first screens using the photo emulsion method last night, mixing the emulsion and sensitizer that we ordered online. The goal was to be able to make a screen so I could print t-shirts for my mom's 30 year college reunion. Simple enough - I've made screens before using less than ideal materials, manually blocking off the areas not to be printed using a paint brush and paints. The screen worked for what I wanted - a very beat-up looking print, which matches my goal, but for my mom's she wanted nice crisp lines and it to be more consistent.
To the fabric store. We purchased Chiffon, which I read works on a few websites, although eventually I want to purchase the screen mesh, but we were in a hurry and its not really available locally anyways. I used 2x2s that we had laying around to whip out three screens last night, and it worked beautifully. After making a sufficient mess in the kitchen, and after about 12:30am, we were satisfied with the results and set them to dry over night in the dark hall closet.
In the morning, I began the image burning process. All good and fun. I followed instructions I had read for the emulsion I purchased. 150W normal incandescent bulb, 12" away, 10 minutes.
This was the end result. No good. At first the letters opened up nicely, but after some more water, all of the screen began opening up. Fortunately I thought to myself "If a little comes out, why not try and salvage the screen and blast it all out". So I did. 5 minutes later, I was back to the drawing board as to exposing the screen.
I ended up using a 500W halogen fixture, about 18" off the screen for 15 minutes.
This was the result of that one. It turned out fairly well, though after washing, a few areas opened up that werent supposed to. Unfortunately, the rest of the screen was far beyond saving using just water so I said screw it and decided to try and use paint to cover up the little holes that didnt stay closed. It worked, except in one area. Just chocking this one up to experience seeing as the rest of the screen cannot be salvaged BUT the areas that did print looked amazing and knocked my mom off her feet. She was blown away with the quality of the print.
This is out ghetto fabulous setup. I've seen better, I've seen worse, but this works perfectly for us.
This is the screen I made in order to print shirts as a joke for work. We dont have uniforms, but I think it'll be fun to walk into work and have this snazzy shirt all made up.
A test print we did on a white t-shirt with black ink, just to make sure the screen was up to par with my standards. Hahaa, thats funny considering I lack all standards beyond legibility of the print.
And now the final print, on the final t-shirt. I am going to use white ink for this print, given that its a black t-shirt. I'm glad I ordered one to many when I printed the LPC t-shirts earlier, because I happened to have one properly sized black t-shirt ready for this.
And the final result. I dont know why my camera insisted on creating the holy glowing around the text, however, every shot I took had it. The text on the bottom is a bit blurry for my liking, but I think I know how to fix it in the future. It says "division of engineering and computing services" under the huge DECS. We dont have a logo for work, so I just made something up.
And there you have it. My first screen printing attempts. I'm incredibly pleased with the quality and ease of this method that I'll likely be looking into ordering more emulsion and sensitizer. I've heard good things about the Ulano DTX (I believe), the one with sensitizer already mixed in. And its not a bad price either, so I think thats going to be an up and coming purchase.
I'm so incredibly happy. We redid the screen for my mom and it works like a charm. I did manage to screw it up a bit, however, it still works like it didnt have the problem. The next step is to print up ~35 of the shirts for her, and then I'll start experimenting with colors. That'll be fun, especially if I can do some fun things.