I’m trying to teach myself the art of silk screen printing. This is a series blog about the obstacles, the lessons, the knowledge and the skills I hope to possess by the end of my journey. Take what you will out of this and to other accomplished screen printers feel free to share your wealth of knowledge on the subject.
I’m sure if you are not inside the mind of Joey Broyles (me) you may think, “Gee he has so many unfinished projects.” Well I’m all about multi-tasking and doing several things at once, the truth is my mind is so crazy with ideas that I am a slave to my mind.
Learning how to screen print has been a huge learning curve for me. As of right now I have not actually applied ink to anything but have made my first screen. Unfortunately the drawing fluid has not been ideal in this situation. Below is the photo of my screen before I washed out the fluid.
Everything seems to be fine. Drawing fluid applied first and dry. Screen filler emulsion fluid applied and dry. All things dried horizontally for at least 4 hours in between. However, this is a trial and error process and because it’s my first screen let me tell you the variables that will describe the problems that have already incurred.
First I may have drew my image too dark with a soft lead pencil. Second I may have not applied enough drawing fluid to the screen. Third I did more than one swipe of screen filler which can wash out the drawing fluid. The screen was washed out with cold water. Does it matter that every other tutorial I read said warm water and I used cold? I don’t know for sure until someone fills me in. I’ve already learned how not to do several things and so this will make me better for my next turn at it.
My screen has been washed out in some places, but not so well in other places. His eyes are completely gone. Some of his hair, even after using a tooth brush to scrub some filler off, did not come through in all places. Not all of his chin washed through and honestly I won’t know for sure how bad it is until I do a test print. Since I’ve never done the ink part, I need to do it even though I know the print will be less than impressive. Again this is all trial and error being it’s my first time.
The next entry I will show you what my first screen looked like and what the prints were like. Maybe between you and me we can figure this out and get better as we go along. Once I’ve got this down I’d like to move on to the photo emulsion, but let’s climb one mountain at a time.
Websites that I encourage others to use that have tutorials and all sorts of helpful tips:
http://nomediakings.org/doityourself/howto_silkscreen_posters_and_shirts.html
http://www.reuels.com/reuels/Silk_Screen_Printing_Instructions.html
http://community.livejournal.com/craftgrrl/5400475.html
http://www.silkscreeningsupplies.com/
http://www.ehow.com/how_10855_expose-photo-emulsion.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Screen-Printing%3A-Cheap,-Dirty,-and-At-Home/
http://www.dickblick.com/categories/screenprinting/
Book:
http://www.amazon.com/Printing-Hand-Handmade-Stencils-Screens/dp/1584796723/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282327533&sr=8-1 —This book was the best book I could find giving you step by step screen printing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee_8IMx0uMo
