Saturday, September 24, 2011

Screenprinting

This week I was hired to print some t-shirts for a church group. It was fun to get out my screenprinting stuff and get to work.

Here are some of my supplies, and a couple of designs I created a while back... thought I might test them out while I was at it. :)
  It's been so great to have this workspace that Jeremy created for me in the garage. I have space to set up my screen, apply the emulsion, set up my exposure lamp and then do my clean-up in the sink beside the counter. Thanks babe!
 Exposure times for the screen can be tricky and I'm still working on getting my more detailed designs to come out crisp and clear..... lots of trial and error. But that's ok, at least the church logo came out perfect this time. The other stuff can wait, it was just for fun anyway. But I will work on it again soon..... maybe print some stuff for my etsy shop.
Wash out the screen to reveal the printing areas.... so cool to see the design come through.

 Once my printing area was set up, I brought over the dry screen and taped around the edges and covered parts I didn't need to get any ink on. Then I carefully lined up the logo on the t-shirts top left corner and used the squeegee to spread the ink and press it through the screen onto the shirt.
  Carefully raise the screen. Yes! Success. Let dry and heat set with an iron.
  Fourteen shirts complete... delivered.... and possibly more to do next week. Yay!
 Now, I'm totally inspired to screenprint. Need more screens, hmmmm.... I think I can build some, maybe I'll talk to my hubby about getting some supplies for that next week. ;)

1 comment:

Natalie said...

I love seeing how you did this! If you're in a screen printing mood I will pay you to make some sort of a Coyote and/or football onesie for Brock!