Screen printing day! I have two screens and one frame with extra screen and cord. One of my screens is in use and the other is covered in ink. The ink is oil-based and the mineral spirits that are required to clean it off are pretty toxic. Seeing as a I don't have a well ventilated space and I do have an ill suite mate I decided to take a stab at assembling my own screen. I was pretty skeptical...
The supplies are all laid out. The fabric came on a cool foam board square. Yay free materials!
I cut off a piece of the nylon fabric. There's a deep groove along the sides of the frame that you push the cord into to hold the fabric in place. I didn't think I could get it tight enough...
Time to put the photo emulsion on.
You apply the emulsion in a nice even coat across the screen using a squeegee-type thing. The emulsion is light-sensitive, so any part of it that is exposed to light will be "burned" permanently onto the screen.
When the screen is dry you put your design (printed on a transparency) on the screen. It's best to weigh it down a little with a piece of glass. That will keep it flat. Everything covered by black will not be exposed to light, so it will wash out and let the ink through.
Next you turn a really bright light on it for awhile. I usually go for about 40 minutes or so. It might not take that long, but I don't want to risk it and take it off too soon. The emulsion is too expensive for experimentation in my book.
Lucky for me I'm in film school and have access to good lights. Since most people don't have that access (neither will I after May), here are some light box building instructions.
After scrubbing the unburned emulsion in the sink the screen was ready!
Next I collected my gold water-based ink, my screen printing spoon, the squeegee, and a piece of black construction paper.
I put the paper under the screen,
put a line of ink on the top of the screen,
Unfortunately, the print didn't come out too well. I print my transparencies at Kinkos and they don't print very solidly. There are lighter lines in the transparency and that lets the light through. If you know of a different place to get transparencies printed let me know!
(This is a cell diagram, by the way)
But I want to show you a good-looking print too. I made a quick print from the screen I've been using for greeting cards.
Those lines were not intended, but it's the Kinkos printer. It kind of works on this print, but not so much on the cell.
I hope this was helpful and interesting to you! I'm a self-taught screen printer, so I'm still working on it. Don't be afraid to tackle it! It's not nearly as hard as it seems.
Thanks for reading,
Alie
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