How to Silkscreen Posters and Shirts May 19, 2006
Silkscreening is such a great happy medium — nestled comfortably half-way between hand-drawn and mass production, more colourful than photocopying and with an aesthetic all its own. Artist Shannon Gerard broke out her silkscreening gear to make cool shirts and posters for her upcoming comic launch, and despite being crazy busy has shared her skills in this funny and detailed tutorial. Read on to learn how to print your own posters, shirts, or whatever you fancy printing on, and how the Virgin Mary and Spiderman join forces to help her out.
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1. Choosing and Preparing Your Screen What you need: ~ A screen with the right mesh count for your printing surface The first thing you need when setting up a home print shop is the screen (I know, weird). Screens with aluminium frames last much longer than wooden frames which warp after repeated washings. Aluminium screens are usually only 10 dollars more than wooden screens of the same size, so even if you plan to use your screen more than one time, the extra money is definitely worthwhile. A sturdy aluminium screen will continue to lie flat on the printing surface after multiple uses and the mesh is pulled much tighter around an aluminium frame which produces a crisper printed image. They’re also a lot easier to wash out than wooden screens. The other major factor to consider is mesh count. The mesh count refers the tightness of the weave in the mesh fabric of the screen. A higher mesh count means the fibres of the mesh are closer together and a lower count means the fibres are more loosely woven, so more ink can pass through the screen. If you are printing on paper, you want a screen with a mesh count of about 230 for really optimal results. A screen that tight will allow you to print images with finer details and thinner lines. Since fabric is generally more absorbent than paper, you need a screen that lets through more ink when printing on t-shirts, totebags, or anything cloth. For fabric printing, you should use a screen with a mesh count of 110 or 160 (those tend to be the standard counts sold). I use 110. A lot of folks also opt for a mesh count of about 180, which allows printing on both paper and fabric, but there is an obvious loss of fine detail if you print onto paper at that count. If you live in Toronto, the best place to buy screens and related materials (it’s the cheapest too), is G&S Dye and Accessories at Dundas and University. Dixon, who runs G&S, knows everything about fabric printing (I almost believe he could bring about world peace) and is also very helpful about supplies and advice. His website has very detailed information about printing including some in-depth tutorials and awesome diagrams of home set-ups. Once you have bought your screen, the first important thing to do is wash it out with cold water and a degreasing agent (I use the unfortunately gender-specific Mr. Clean, the concentration a little bit weaker than what you would put on the Also important is to understand the orientation of your screen (not the gender specific kind). The flat “back” of the screen which sits on the printing surface is called the “print side” or “paper side” and the “front” of the screen, recessed inside the lip of the frame, is called the “squeegee side.” |
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2. Preparing Your Artwork What you need: ~ Original artwork with a high contrast Screen printing is a very “flat” medium, so images that are starkly contrasted work best. When preparing your artwork to be burned to the screen (to create the stencil), work in black and white only — grey tones and the subtleties of photographic images will not produce a workable stencil. If you start with a photo, as in the example below, reduce the information to a line drawing, or apply a filter or halftone screen in Photoshop which will reduce the image to a series of dots. |
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| I used the photo on the left as a source to produce the drawing on the right, but I liked the red colour of the boxing gloves and wanted to include that in the final print. You can print in any colour you want, but the artwork used to make the stencil must be black. I coloured in the glove shapes, making sure they remained registered correctly to the drawing: | ||||
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| Every colour you want to print requires a separate stencil.
Once you have the artwork prepared, print or photocopy it onto transparent film, and you will be ready to produce the screen stencil. It is very important that the black areas printed on the transparency are completely opaque, so hold it up to the light and make sure all the black lines are totally dense. 3. Burning the Stencil What you need: ~ The screen This is the most intensive step in the screenprinting process, but if you take a little extra care when making the stencil, the printing process will go super fast. The first thing to do, after your screen is degreased and completely dry, is to coat the screen in emulsion. Emulsion is the photosensitive goop that will make the stencil on the screen. In areas where the emulsion hardens, the screen is blocked so no ink can pass through. In areas where the emulsion is kept soft and eventually washed out of the screen, the ink will pass through to produce your print. Emulsion is hardened by exposure to light, so you need to conduct this entire process in a darkroom using photosafe lights to see by. I use the extremely ghetto mechanism of a Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) night light with a red christmas tree bulb inside (witness the shame below) and coat my screens in our windowless bathroom (it gets worse). |
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| Emulsion comes in two parts, the emulsion proper and a small bottle of sensitiser. Working by the red light of your own BVM, mix the emulsion with the sensitiser (each brand comes with its own set of instructions on the label). Once sensitised, emulsion is good for about 3 weeks at room temperature, or about 3 months (tops — it gets iffy at the end of those 3 months) if refrigerated. Always wear gloves! when handling emulsion. Those photo-chemicals are nasty!
To coat the screen, you can invest in a scoop coater (about 14 bucks) or can use the slightly grosser and less controllable option of a squeegee or wallpaper smoother. A scoop coater is a very easy-to-use trough which holds the emulsion and deposits a nice even, thin coat on the screen. If you’re using the squeegee or smoother option, use a spatula to spread a line of emulsion along one end of the screen (See below) and then, pressing very firmly with the squeegee, drag the line of emulsion down or up the screen until it is evenly coated with emulsion. It is very important to have a thin, even coat of emulsion on the screen, uninterrupted by drips or blobby areas that could mess up the clarity of your stencil. I always double coat my screen by applying one coat to the paper side and another to the squeegee side. You must double coat all in one go while the first coat is still freshly wet. |
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| Leave the coated screen in the dark to dry for at least 2 hours. Some tutorials say one hour, but I always have bad results with that timeline because the emulsion is not ready. The important thing is that the emulsion is completely dry before you expose your image. No stickiness allowed.
Once the coated screen is dry, you can expose it. It is easy to set up a home exposure unit by arranging materials in this order (from bottom to top)– 1. black cloth or board on the bottom to absorb the light and prevent it from bouncing back through your image area; 2. screen next with paper side down (against the black board); 3. transparencies against the squeegee side of the screen, oriented so that you can read them normally from left to right; 4. a sheet of heavy glass on top of the transparencies to hold them down as tightly as possible to the screen surface; 5. a lamp situated about 1 or 1.5 feet above the glass top with a 250 watt photo flood bulb installed (any good photo store has these for about 8 bucks a bulb). |
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| Don’t forget to set up this exposure unit inside the darkroom! Also, make sure there are no obvious dust particles or other matter in between the transparency and the screen or the glass and the transparency. Any material that blocks the light from getting to the emulsion will show up in your stencil and will interrupt your print.
The other big thing to keep in mind here is that the outer two inches of the screen area (closest to the frame on all sides) are unprintable. Because the tension is so high where the fabric is stretched around the frame, you can’t get a good print out of the border areas of the screen. Make sure your image does not go closer to the frame than 2 inches all around. Once you have the unit set up in the dark, turn on the flood light for about 15 minutes and allow the emulsion to harden in areas that receive the light. At the end of 15 minutes, you can turn off the flood light and work in the regular light of the room (no more darkroom necessary). Remove the glass and transparency (you will probably be able to see a ghost image of your design at this point, but if you don’t — it’s okay) and immediately, thoroughly spray the entire surface of the screen with cold water. You have to do this right away and wash the screen out before the emulsion gets hard where your design is. Use a spray nozzle in your shower (how convenient that my exposure unit is in the bathroom) or sink, or use the garden hose to spray down the the screen. Gently pass the spray across the whole surface of the screen until your design is completely washed out. Hold it up to the light to make sure no cloudy areas remain inside your stencil. If any pinholes show where you don’t want them, paint them in with left over emulsion and leave them to dry in the sunlight. Now your stencil is done! Let the screen completely dry before printing. |
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4. Printing the Image What you need: ~ One set of two hinge clamps ~ A large flat surface To set up for printing, you need a completely flat table or counter top with two hinge clamps installed at the far side and a large piece of acetate or velum (at least 2 feet long — much larger than the paper or fabric you are printing onto). Tape the acetate down firmly at one end so that it will not budge. You need it to be perfectly fixed at one end in order to properly register your print. |
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| Fasten the screen into the hinge clamps with the squeegee side facing up and make sure you can move the screen into an upright position in the clamps without it falling back down to the printing surface. | ||||
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| Use packing tape to block off any open areas of the screen that you don’t want to print. | ||||
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| Prop the screen up slightly with your roll of tape and apply a line of ink onto the surface of the screen about 2 inches above the image to be printed. Flood the image with ink using your squeegee. Make sure you have the right kind of squeegee for the material (paper or fabric) on which you are printing. If printing on fabric, make sure you use fabric ink, otherwise your image will wash off in the laundry. | ||||
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| Make sure the acetate is between the printing table and the screen. Lower the screen to the table surface and print the first copy of the image onto the acetate. Immediately flood the image with ink to keep it from drying out. Raise the screen to an upright position in the hinges. | ||||
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| Use the acetate to register your image in the right spot on your shirt or paper by orienting your shirt or paper underneath the acetate. | ||||
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| Remove the acetate (just move it out of the way, don’t detach it from the table!) and lower the screen onto your shirt or paper. Print the image by holding the squeegee at about 45 degrees and applying even, strong pressure to pass the ink through the screen. | ||||
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| Ta da! | ||||
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| Remember that this ink dries to plastic. Any area, however small, where it dries in the screen will become unusable in the future. In between each print, flood your image. When you’re done printing, wash the screen of all ink right away. Mr. Clean (or any non-gender specific water based cleaning agent) can be used to wash out ink (if necessary) without degrading the emulsion.
Screen ink dries very quickly, so if you are printing in many layers on paper, you can print the second layer on top of the first within about 20 minutes (I wait longer just to make sure no colours bleed together, but you can do it in 20 no problem). If you are printing on fabric, let the image dry for at least an hour (I wait 2) and then iron over top of the image on the hottest setting for at least 1 full minute. Ironing the ink makes it colour fast in the wash. Easy huh? Here’s what the printed shirt looks like, and here’s what the same image looks like, in two layers, on paper: |
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Thanks again to Shannon for writing this amazing tutorial — check out her art on shannongerard.org. |
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HOW TO - Silkscreen posters and shirts…
Shannon writes - “Silkscreening is such a great happy medium — nestled comfortably half-way between hand-drawn and mass production, more colourful than photocopying and with an aesthetic all its own. Artist Shannon Gerard broke out her silkscreening…
What a fantastic run down of the process!! Great tutorial! The eeriest thing about it all though is that I use almost an IDENTICAL nightlight in my bathroom when dealing with the emulsion! Mine isn’t La Virgin though, it’s the man JC himself holding a darling little lamb.
Great work!
Screen Printing…
Ever wondered how Warhol produced his legendary paintings?
Here’s a selection of sites explaining how to do screen printing:
“Silkscreening is such a great happy medium — nestled comfortably half-way between hand-drawn and mass producti…
Thanks for putting up a great page. Much better than other DIY posting which don’t really discuss thread count and proper techniques. I wasted time and money following not the greatest advice. It toook a while to figure all this stuff out. Anyways, great page!
i’ve been wanting to figure out how to do this for years, my gratitude to you knows no bounds…
This is such a great tutorial. Really cool.
I really appreciate your page on silk screening. Thanks, fran miller, denver
[...] How to Silkscreen Posters and Shirts This is a nice little tutorial. I’ve been meaning to learn how to silkscreen for like ever. (del.icio.us tags: DIY design clothing art useful) [...]
A better tutorial on silkscreening, in my opinion:
http://www.stencilinternational.com/tutorial_basic_silkscreening.php
and how to build your own silkscreening press:
http://www.stencilinternational.com/tutorial_build_press.php
Um, I wonder what you’re basing that on Drew, other than the fact that you wrote it? I took a quick look at your links and they do have more gratuitious use of the hiLARious hip slang “Bitches!” and a lot of pictures of you with powertools, so I guess you win.
[...] I’m always impressed when somebody can get something down to the level where even I can stroke my chin and muse, “Hey, I could do that.” Next thing I know there’s another todo on my list and I’m doomed. This is the trap I encountered over at the most excellent No Media Kings, where they present a tutorial on how to screenprint your own shirts, crafted by artist Shannon Gerard. Bonus points for working in Spidey and the Virgin Mary, something we haven’t seen since that Marvel Team-Up special. You know the one. [...]
what is the point of the acetate step?
who coats a screen with the squeegie? try using a scoop coater next time it will work much better and cut your dry time to about 30-40 min. using a fan. good luck
[...] i’m going to build a screenprinting press so i can create beautiful t-shirts like the ones on threadless except with less colours and junk. I’ll probably follow the guide from http://www.nomediakings.org/doityourself/howto_silkscreen_posters_and_shirts.html. [...]
I have been wanting to learn this process for years. Thank you very much!
Silkscreen your own posters and t-shirts…
The No Media Kings blog has a nice tutorial for screenprinting your own shirts and posters from photographs. If you’ve ever considered leaving behind the world of pre-designed clothing for something that really speaks to your aesthetic, learning to…..
[...] http://www.NoMediaKings.org - Step-by-step instructions with lots of pictures [...]
[...] How to Silkscreen Posters and Shirts - Time to silkscreen some orange shirts, I’d say. [via Lifehacker] [...]
[...] No Media Kings has a primer. [...]
[...] No Media Kings: I know that printing up your own hoodies might seem like a risky venture, but it can’t hurt to be creative, and we’ve all been sat in a bar going “dude, we should totally put that on t-shirt” (only to forget the idea the next day). But the screenprinting tutorial over at No Media Kings is one of the best I’ve read, and whilst I’ve never tried printing myself, it does look like it might be fun. [...]
Love what you are doing. Thought you might be interested in my site - I provide free patterns for people to make their own clothes. I currently have one pattern for guys (a hoodie) but plan to have more as there are obviously a few guys out there giving it a go.
Something crucial she does not mention is when screening to a dark medium, use a white layer as a base/outline layer so the bright colors continue to “pop”. To do this, combine all your stencils into one and make thtat the white layer.
[...] It’s Thursday; you’ve decided to ditch your olde-timey folk band & start hand-rolling your own line of couture clothing. You better learn how to silkscreen. © 1996 - 2005, Hanttula.com Copyright & Credits [...]
[...] What a great tutorial on No Media Kings about How to Silkscreen Posters and Shirts! It makes me want to set up a silk screen studio. But then I remember twenty five years ago when I went to Simon’s Rock and took a silk screening class and Bob Anderson came out so we could do posters for his band Special Guest and then Bob acciedentially got emulsifier on his leg and it started to eat through his pants as we were walking in the freezing cold weather from the studio back to the Crosby dorm so he could shower to get the emulsifier off his leg and I was laughing and laughing because he was hobbling along in such pain. I’m laughing now thinking about it, too. [...]
I have been searching for a good tutorial on how do do this for a while now and this is by far the best. I started screen printing about a week ago so I am pretty new at this still. You have pointed out details that no one else has even bothered to mention. It’s 1:40 in the morning and I am inspired!
[...] Once I do have my own process worked out, I will post it. But until then, here are some great resources to get you started. No Media Kings has a in-depth tutorial on silk-screening in general (for tshirts or posters or whatever). They go over a two-color example. Angry Chicken has an innovative stencil process involving ironing freezer-paper. This is a way simpler process than a photo-emulsion process. Using cheap freezer paper is a great way to avoid buying expensive made-for-tshirt-making kits. Craftgrrl has a great alternative process involving glue and an embroidery hoop. She also gives a great HowTo on using MS Paint to create an image - as opposed to using more complex image editing tools. And finally: Stencil Revolution has many articles about stenciling in general. They do have two specific tshirt-printing HowTos, both involving a easy low-tech acetate stencil. [...]
You have the most concise and helpful screening tutorial I’ve run across anywhere…period. Most sites try to make the process look like magic. Your sly sense of humor and straighforward approach make it much less intimidating for a beginning screener. Cheers!
thanks for that! i really needed to know how to silkscreen print for a school artowrk project i am working on, i visited lots of websites which were not as good as yours. it really helped, anyway, thatnks again, Laura
So emulsion is only good for 3 weeks? What happens after that?
If you refrigerate the emulsion, it will last about 2.5 to 3 months. If not, about 3 or 4 weeks is tops. After the emulsion “expires” it won’t harden properly when you expose it, so lots of things can go wrong with the stencil. Big chunks can peel off, the whole thing might wash out, the background emulsion will break down, you name it.
Thanks for the great tutorial! I just saw a great Warhol exhibit at the allentown art musuem and was totally inspired. I’m a graphic designer pretty much reliant on my mac but I’ve been anxious to get my hands dirty. Thanks!
Every time I try to make a print, the ink gets clogged in the screen and doesn’t pass onto the paper. Do you have any idea why or how I can fix this? I’m using speedball ink and screens.
There’s a new member-supported silk screening studio opening up in Toronto: http://www.popfuel.com/
GREAT ! THANK YOU A LOT FOR THE BRIGHT DESCRIPTION .
Bill,
Speedball is a very unreliable company who make students grade inks and products. From batch to batch, they are very inconsistent, so you never know what you’ll get. Unfortunately, they hold the monopoly in most run-of-the-mill art supply stores, but it you can avoid them DO IT!
What city do you live in? If you’re in TO, check out G&S Dyes and Accessories. I use their transparent base and pigments to print onto paper and fabric. They have way better colours and comparable prices. They also sell pre-mixed opaque inks but they are very thick so you have to add a bit of transparent base anyway.
As to why the ink won’t pass through, you have to consider the relationship of all materials to one another, so there are lots of factors to check:
What is the mesh count of your screen? Get the right count for the surface you are printing to.
Is the emulsion fully rinsed out of the stencil? Hold it up to the light and make sure the stencil areas are not at all cloudy and that light passes all the way through.
Are you using the right kind of ink for the surface you’re printing to? There is a different kind of wash-safe ink for fabric and two kinds of acrylic inks for paper, one that will smudge if it gets wet and another that dries for good.
Are you using the right kind of squeegee for the surface you’re printing to? A stiffer, less malleable squeegee is made for paper prints and another squishier kind is for fabric.
Are you holding the squeegee at a 45 degree angle when you print and pressing hard enough? (You have to press kinda hard, you’ll figure it out for your own body after a few tries)
Are you flooding the screen between prints? This part is really important because screen ink dries very quickly. You have to keep those stencil areas really well lubricated between each print so that the ink doesn’t dry. If the ink dries too fast for you, try adding ink retarder to slow the drying time.
I hope some of that long-winded stuff helps.
[...] Have found a number of useful tutorials on the web, how to silkscreen posters and shirts on new media kings is good and there are a couple of useful posts on stencil international (just ignore the try hard gangsta language). [...]
I am just starting out and trying to learn to print t-shirts. Your tutorial has been a great help. My problem seems to be finding the right mesh size for fabric. My design is not real detailed. I am having a lot of trouble finding this information. Currently I tried to use what they call 8xx and 12xx … sometimes too much ink comes through. I am not sure what the difference between the xx’s and the 110’s.
Thanks for a great tutorial with great pictures.
Very nice and simple of way of teaching the otherwise complecated process.
In the same way will you please tell me ” How Rubber printing is done on T-Shirts is done. Rubber printing meaning a Leaf kind of Printing that is what I can say. I do not know the tech.name of the process. If we move hand over the printed area we feel it as if it is quoted by rubber or something like that. I will be thak ful to you if you send me the answer on my mail i.d. directly.
Thanks!
Vilas
(India)
Anyone out there have suggestions for good place to get blank t-shirts if you’re not going to buy in bulk?
Thanks
Arts and crafts stores are usually a good choice.
[...] While going through my rss feeds I found this link to some really cool silkscreen ties, here is their flickr account with some more picutes. Granted I never dress up, but can you imagine how great it would be to show up to a job interview with one of these bad boys on. I plan, in the near future to make a page with all the rss feed that I read every day. In the mean time I found the ties on Make: blog which is a really good blog if you like making strange computer related projects. Also here is a link form Make: blog which is a good how-to silkscreen shirts and posters, which I plan on trying when I get some time. [...]
[...] http://nomediakings.org/doityourself/howto_silkscreen_posters_and_shirts.html [...]
If you want blank shirts I suggest American Apparel. They are sweatshop-free, and come in tons of different cuts and colors!
Thanks so much for making a great tutorial - recently I’ve been making a bunch of ties and have a new intern coming in next week to help out in the studio. I will definitely be sending her this primer before we get started.
-Bethany
thanks,
so crazy i found this link on one good bumble bee , from some state that is warm, so fun and funny to find local talent in places i didn’t expect, like traveling full circle.
i continue to love my t shirt shannon,
thanx for the tutorial….
i must silk screen!
cheers kim
At last, you have no ideia the amount of time i`ve wasted looking for a screen print tutorial like this one. Muito Obrigado ( thanks in portuguese)
after reading a bunch of tutorials, this one is the most clear and concise that i came across, with everything combined, to setting up a basic studio,
thanks for the info. Has saved me a lot of time and money. cheers
Dear readres
I am an amatuer watercolorist,i found and love this site of silk screen printing this is indeed very informative,teachyourself step by step site,my congratulation to author of the site.
If i get time i will teach my kids,how to apply photo emulsion,how to expose,how to correct stencil,how to remove pigment as well as emulsion,really no light or heavy machinery is required for printing,one of my friend created very clear seals/logos on a very glossy golden sheet of sticker.
keep on adding,good luck.
Naseem ahmed khan
www,addpk.com
I just completed my first printing on a t-shirt using these instructions. I can’t say it was painless; the end result was perfect in spots, not so perfect in others and I made a hell of a mess, I ended up printing on the shirt I was in at the time because it was totally shot by the end. All said and done I must say thanks. A very helpful tutorial.
This is fantastic, and I can’t wait until I have the space to give it a try…
One question: is there a way to remove the emulsion from the screens (in order to change the image)? I know you can do this with some serious chemicals, but I was wondering if there is an easier, at-home way of doing this?
Also, I’ve heard that water bills can get quite high when you own a home-printing studio. Thoughts?
Thanks!
Yup, you can remove the emulsion with emulsion stripper and use the screen as many times as you want. That’s why aluminum screens are way better than wooden ones. They stand up to multiple washes.
Emulsion stripper is unfortunately a pretty nasty chemical, so you should definitely wear neoprene gloves (those yellow dish gloves from the grocery or hardware store aren’t chemical resistant, so they will not protect your hands). You can get green or light blue neoprene gloves from an art supply store or some hardware stores. Some folks also wear a respirator. If you do this (it’s a very good idea), make sure you get filters for it which block vapours–as opposed to just blocking particles. The label will tell you what kind of blockage the filter is made for.
To get the emulison off, coat the screen with stripper WHILE IT’S DRY. Leave the stripper on the screen for about 5 or 10 minutes to let it soak in and start to break down the photo-chemicals. Then, start to scrub the screen with a hard brush until the emulsion gets cloudy and the image dissappears. DON’T FORGET GLOVES.
Ideally, you would use a power washer to get the emulsion out of the screen, but since most people don’t have one, you can use A LOT of elbow grease and spend some time getting it out with just a regular shower head or tap and the brush.
Using a power washer would definitely bring your water bill up, but I’m not sure that washing screens by hand would cause that big an increase. It’s hard though, so you might get some blisters.
Also, I don’t wash screens out at home, so I’m not sure how to properly store the emulsion stripper while it’s not in use. Definitely check the label to protect yourself from leaching chemicals.
Second time is the charm in this case. I have just completed printing on 12 shirts for our indoor soccer team (front and back logos, emblems, numbers and all)printing took about a week in my spare time. The captain and I are pretty excited for our first game today; we will all look very good. Thanks again for the instructions.
On that topic you might want to let readers know that they can coat the screen with photo-emulsion in the light, This second attempt, I did it in a windowless room with a frosted 40w bulb - I then left the screen to dry in there in the dark when I was done and it did not hurt the results and I made less of a mess. (Who knows - that might help someone starting out too)
Cheers.
thanx a great deal. I’ve been lookin 4 dis since like 4eva
Thanks for the tutorial. I’ve been wondering how this is done for such a long time. I hope to be able to get the supplies locally, in Singapore. = )
[...] Toronto author and self-publishing guru Jim Munroe has a blog for his No Media Kings do-it-yourself movement. Worthy of note is the Do-It-Yourself category archive which has articles on silkscreening, book printing, and comic production. So get out there and create! [...]
Hi Shannon —
Do you have any experience using versatex ink? I tried to do some screenprinting a year ago with it, and was completely unable to make it impervious to water. It claimed it just needed a quick ironing, but that didn’t work. I finally resorted to broiling the shirts in the oven, which darkened the ink and didn’t even work 100%. Is this just a really bad ink to use, or did I get a bad batch, or maybe did something else wrong? If I could solve the problem I’d be super excited to make more shirts, but it definitely was a discouraging experience.
I wish I’d had your tutorial a year ago! Thanks for helping all us out!
Hey Kevin:
Nope, I’ve never used that ink before. If it kinda worked when you baked it, I suspect it is an industrial grade product or something– those commercial shops really cook the shirts after printing them with great results, but I just use the lower grade do-it-at-home variety.
I’m a bit nervous about cooking my shirts after printing since I can hardly even remember to unplug the kettle when making tea. The mother of a friend of mine used to heat her underwear in the oven every morning so it would be nice and toasty when she went to get dressed– but in recent years she’s had some minor mishaps and near tragedies due to forgetting sensitive articles in the cooker.
shan.
great write up,
but g+s in toronto doesn’t sell 230+mesh count screens.
does abyone know where can i buy such a screen?
I followed a link to this from a comment on my own screen printing tutorial. Nicely done.
The instructions I wrote are especially good for people who want to experiment and who don’t have extra money for equipment: http://www.instructables.com/id/EFAN6S16FTEQ2W3MOV/
There’s some special kind of satisfaction from making screens out of old curtains and picture frames…
You can get screens of any mesh at ACCU SCREEN:
5250 FINCH AVE. EAST, UNIT 10, SCARBOROUGH, ON M1S 5A5
416-751-1630
They sell used and new screens, wooden or aluminum frames as well as a good selection of emulsion strippers and screen cleaners.
Anybody have any more help with ink not passing through the screen? It goes through just about everywhere on the first print, but after that, it slowly starts getting clogged in little places making it just about unusable eventually. You can see whats happening at http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d190/eyyo/clog.jpg. Im using speedball fabric inks to print on tshirts and fabrics. The emulsion is completely washed out, so thats not a problem. Can anyone help?
Curious if anyone know if there are places in melboure, australia,… where these materials can be easily sourced/bought??… any help would be great
cheers
Lawrence
> is the usage of a
> glass sheet primarily to keep the image on the
> transparency flat? is there any other function
> (eg refraction of light onto the emulsion etc)
> that the glass serves? i’m having difficulties
> finding a sheet of 10*14 glass, and am wondering
> if it wouldn’t be better to just tape it down.
> thanks.
yep, you can tape the transparency down, but it doesn’t hold the image as tightly to the screen– the glass is mostly useful for its heaviness so that there isn’t any shadow around the image when you expose it.
if you tape it, it should work out okay but you might get some marks on the screen where the shape of the tape exposes. you can just wash those out with the rest of the stencil and then paint them in with screen filler or extra emulsion so they don’t show up in your prints.
Anyone know of places where you can give them your design and they’ll print them out (100 or more) for a reasonable price (on decent quality t-shirts)?
Thanks,
Drakes
hey just wondering if you can give me some help at printing using a hand cut stencil and no emulsion, im just strating out and don’t wana get into emulsion just yet as i only have one screen and want to avoid the hassel of constant stripping and cleaning. pls could you give me some advice and maybe a step by step process? plssssssss
thank you 
hope to here from you soon
pls reply to my email as wel thank you
bsillitoe@hotmail.com
I guess I left the lamp on it to long (24 minutes) because I burnt the screen and the opaque parts turned dark, it was right where the light was directed, as it moved towards the edges the image washed out fine, but overall, it was fried, I cant even get it to reclaim. Oh well. I’m off to buy another tommorrow!
thanks for putting this up on the web! i’m going to start my own T-shirt business
thank you, this brings back so many memories from High School. Now I’ve got my own business and want to design my own shirts, now I know how to. wish me luck.
hay i just got the screen printer today and im kinda ifey on using it i dont wnat to fuck any thing up i was wondering how do you take off the green shit mines red is thta right any way ya shit helped me out a lot thnax im still kinda confused on what to do tho about the green shit
hi its me agine i was wondering do you need the draweing flid for when ya burning the image or is that for if you wnat to be quick with it and a nouther qestion when you use the green shit dose just transpartn papaer do it so it soffens it up or is that douced with the drawing fluid see ij new to this shit and want to make my own shirts i just went out and spent like 100 in shirts so i wnat to do it right and how do you line up the shirts so thier centeredc asue i made one the outher day with a stencil and paint andf its all to the left and looks like shit but hell i still wear it its reping my group so could you hit me back with what im supost to do thanx
i was wondering how long do you have to burn the image into the screen could i just set up my screen and wait for like a week or do i have to burn my screen when it is done drying. also would i be able to take my screen out of the dark when it is done drying from me putting on the emulsion on
hey phet:
Yep, you can wait a week before burning the image, but you can’t take the screen out of the dark until AFTER the image is burned. If you wait a week, the screen has to be in the dark for that whole time.
I’ve heard that photo emulsion can cause cancer, and that there are safer alternatives. What else can you use?
thank you shannon, but that does suck because i’m working out of my bath room and i can’t just keep it closed for a week you know what i mean. but thank you for the info
Phet–mu advice is to store them in a brief case, suitcase, or anything that can be kept completely dark (we built a sealed cabinet for just that purpose). That way you don’t have to keep the room dark.
Be wary of using a drawer, as many drawers let light in when opening others in the same piece of furniture. A cheap brief case (usually about $1 or 2 at your local thrift store) is your best bet, and if you’re overly paranoid, run some duct tape along the seam to prevent any light leaking in…
i was wondering do i have to mix the emulsion and sensitizer in absolute dark
My son just joined the surf team at his school. They all got nice rash guards to wear as practice jerseys. Does anyone know if this process will work to put a logo on the guards that won’t wash off in the surf? Also if I have no equipment, what is the expected cost of doing this? If it will cost me 100 bucks and 30 hours, it might be better for me to take the guards some where to have them done. If it is gonna cost 50 bucks and 10 hours, then I can probably do it.
Wow, im very impressed with this! Thank you so much for such a good read!
This is so nice. I am really glad your explanation is on the web, otherwise, I would be in trouble.
[...] A great explanation on how to silkscreen posters and shirts. [...]
Does anyone know how long I can leave the emulsion on my screens?
I want to print the same images in a month from now and don’t want go through the whole emulsion-exposing process again.
Thanks.
Hi Jennifer:
I have screens that are at least a year old and they print fine still. You can leave the same design on for a long time.
where did you get your $10 aluminum screen?
Thanks for you help,cause for some reason there’s not alot of tips on silkscreening onthe wweb that i found.
I’m and artist and I use to do shirts but now I’m about to get back in the business again and for myself this time.
God bless and thanks for the help.
This is a great tutorial. I’m a visual arts student at York University and am focusing on print media- specifically silkscreen. I’ve been looking for a way to print at home without using the screenfiller method and i came accross your tutorial- it looks great and i’ll be sure to try it out.
A note about speedball products- i’ve been using them for the past 4 years and have not had a problem with ink inconsistency or anything else.
Thanks for the wonderful step by step process i was looking at all the other ones that are on the web and they all suck and give some crappy stuff but yours was very very helpful so thank you very much i got a succesful screen after trying it 2 times so it all worked out good!!!
Re: Starting out?…
This should be quite a primer.
http://nomediakings.org/doityourself/howto_…...
[...] Following guides such as (the very loud or excited) “HOW TO SILKSCREEN!” No Media Kings’ “How to Silkscreen Posters and Shirts“, we decided that we had to get ourselves some photo emulsion. I won’t repeat the steps involved in using the emulsion here (as they are explained in both linked articles and in many other places as well), but here is the end result: [...]
How do u stick the mesh onto an aluminium frame and maintains it’s tightness??? On a wooden frame it is possible to staple them down but on an aluminium?
you buy the aluminum screens already stretched.
Its already stretched with the aluminium screens?? Meaning the mesh comes with the aluminium frame and not bought separately??
I was cleaning out a room in our home, and found about 8 silkscreen wood frames, 27 1/2″ by 19 1/2″ with screen tightly attached with designs already on them. How do you clean off the former designs from the screen that have been there for several years? How should I prepare them for new designs since the emulsion is so old? Thanks so much for the tutorial, I know nothing about Silkscreening but since I found the screens I wanted to find out how the process works. Take care, Gary in Marietta, GA
Gary:
You can get out those old designs with Emulsion Stripper (you can usually find that at art supply stores), or if that doesn’t work, you could use a more toxic industrial strength cleaner. Not sure if you will find that in retail stores though. In Toronto, we have screenprinting supply wholesale places that will send screens out to get the industrial cleaning for customers, so with a little googling, you could probably find a place near you that would do it for you too.
Check out cleaning supplies here: http://www.speedballart.com/
After the screens are wiped, you can reapply new emulsion and burn new designs.
is it ok if i use 120 watts flood bulb instead of 250 watts to dry the photo emulsion on the silk screen?? how many minutes do i need to wait to dry the photo emulsion?
thanks!
Ok.. I got cs/2 a 6 color pony xpress with conveyor belt… flash curer graphxpress blacklight exposure box.. the works.. now when i design cmyk images… i cant seem to get just the right dot size.. with indexing the prints.. have gone from 72ppi to 300 ppi… dots just wash out or by the time i get to print the colors muddle and i lose the image clarity.. so if i am designing for 305 reg mesh count and i am using 6 colors cmyk with underbase white and highlight white screens.. what do you suggest the ppi be on my original design before i go to index to get the correct dot size that will still hold in the screen and not look like a blown up internet pic.. if ya know what i mean. I have screen print seperator software but i realize now its just a spendy filter.. and i have tried the fast films seperator and it was just as difficult because of halftones.. so .. index seems to be the way for most of it but im not quite there.. but really close.. so if you have any advise let me know.. oh.. by the way.. if you want to start silkscreening.. dont start off with high res 6 color process set ups… your rip your hair out.. start off slow…. now that that is said.. you can tell i learned that from hindsight.. lol.. thanks again.
hi.. just want to ask, if you let dry your silk screen with photo emulsion for 2 hours, does it need to proceed to the next step right away without exposing it to the bright place? because i tried to let dry the photo emulsion after 2 hours and then i proceeded the next step after two days, and the design didnt show up in the silk screen after i heated it to bulb for 20 minutes..
ACETATE! Genius! No more guessing where my print will end up. Thanks!!
I wanted to let everyone know, since several people have emailed me about classes, that I will be teaching an 8 week course in screenprinting at Open Studio in Toronto, Monday nights from 630-930, running February 5th through March 26. Space is super limited. To enroll, call Open Studio at 416.504.8238 or email OFFICE at OPENSTUDIO dot ON dot CA. It costs 260 with a 45 dollar materials fee.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for your tutorial! This is great. Great starting point for my tee shirt silkscreening career!
[...] built screen printing table (i call it that cause its just a table with some hinge clamps on it) No Media Kings ? How to Silkscreen Posters and Shirts. Is this what you guys are talking about but in multi-color form? I have been thinking about a way [...]
Great tutorial! I am thinking of starting up my own print studio in my house, so this will definately come in great use. Thanks again.
Hi, thanks a lot for the really helpful tutorial. but i didn’t understand the point of the acetate stage. do you use it to line up the design with the shirt? and do you put it between the screen and teh shirt? if you could clarify this that would be terrific.
Thanks a million,
DAN
Daniel Morrison
Happiness Inc - A little Bit of Conscious Evolution.
Heya, so your tutorial is indeed quite wonderful, but I’ve still been having tons of trouble getting this to work. So far I’ve tried twice and both times I couldn’t get the emulsion off after exposing it. I know one reason might be b/c of exposure time, and that I should try lessening it (again). But I’m already at 18 minutes w/ a lower watt bulb (150 photo flood bulb) than the one you’re using. I’m definitely not exposing the frame to heat or light before exposing it–could there be any other reasons why I can’t get the emulsion off in the places that were black on my transparency? Could a too thick coat of emulsion be the cause? Thanks so much.
Daniel:
Yes, the acetate is to register the image at the correct spot on the tshirt or paper. Make sure the acetate is fastened to the table at one side so that it won’t move. Then print your first print on the acetate. After that, register the tshirt or paper under the acetate so you can see where the image will end up, move the acetate (without untaping it!) and then print on to the shirt or paper. Once you go through the process once, it will be so obvious.
Quinn:
Sounds like you are not blocking the light properly. Make sure you stack the materials in the right order when you shoot. Starting from the ground up:
1. Black material to stop the light from bouncing up through the back of your transparency.
The light can get behind the dark shapes on your transparency by bouncing off the floor or whatever surface is under the screen when you’re shooting it, so MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THAT BLACK LAYER UNDER YOUR SCREEN. It absorbs the light.
What black material are you using under the screen? Thick totally black bristol board or black cloth work best. Make sure the surface is also totally flat.
2. The screen, squeegee side up.
Do you have emulsion on the side of your screen facing up during the burning process? You should have a double coat of emulsion on the screen anyway– one coat on the paper side and one on the squeegee side, but if you just have one coat, make sure it is on the squeegee side (the side facing up when you stack your materials for shooting).
3. The transparency, toner side down, oriented so you can read the image properly from left to right.
Are the dark areas of your transparency totally opaque?
Is the toner on the side of the transparency that faces against your screen? Most printers and photocopiers deposit the toner on the back automatically, so I didn’t bother including this detail among the million other details of the tutorial, but double check that the toner is on the back. If it isn’t, you’ll have to print the image in reverse.
The reason for this is that the photographic rule is always emulsion to emulsion, or in this case, toner to emulsion (they have to make contact with one another). Sometimes the plastic of the transparency film can cause the light to bounce back up through the back of the opaque areas since the film is shiny. It doesn’t always happen, but maybe is causing your problem.
4. Heavy glass on top of transparency.
If your glass isn’t heavy enough, it won’t hold the transparency against the screen tightly enough. You have to press them firmly together– again to prevent the light from bouncing back up through the back.
5. The light bulb.
How far away is the light source from your set up? Try about 2 feet. If it’s too close you can burn the screen and/ or melt stuff together.
Hope that helps.
this is the best tutorial i have read! ive been learning the art of silkscreening lately, and i understand the basic steps and chemical applications to the process, but i have been having terrible difficulty lining up mutli color prints. i had never read much about using fixed positioned acetate as a way of matching up prints, and so i thank you! i dont even have hinge clamps for cryin out loud! this will prevent many headaches for me! thank you!
Hi,
i was hoping you might be able to help me with a small question.
i was wondering how it’d be possible to remove silkscreening from a shirt. If
there was a section in particular i wasn’t fond of, or it just didn’t look
good, would there be any way to take that area off the shirt?
thanks
I wanted to know instead of burning an imange can you print it to a trasnparent paper? or is there something im missing? reply, thanks.
Luca:
Once the design is on there, it’s stuck. Most fabric inks need to be ironed after they’re printed for the colour to become wash-proof, so the best you can do is to wash the shirt or fabric after it’s printed but before it’s ironed. But even then, the design will only fade, not disappear.
Great tutorial! this is the most in depth tutorial i’ve encountered, and it really has clarifyed a lot of things for me.
keep up the good work!
This is a great tutorial, but i was wondering if it is possible to cut your stencil out of black poster board and use that to burn into the screen instead of printing it onto a transparency.
Nick:
Yep. You can use any material that will block the light.
[...] forums for a while, and just started posting (with questions). For the general idea of things, this tutorial is pretty good, from No Media Kings. Good [...]
[...] I have found some good stuff on the net for screen printing. Artist Shannon Gerard provides No Media Kings with a very helpful screen printing tutorial. [...]
My friend and I are planning on creating an on-the-side indie shirt-making company, and this tutorial was so much help! Thanks a lot! I have one question, though, and it may seem quite amateur-ish, but… Is this silkscreen process one-use-only? Like, if I wanted to make 10 shirts exactly the same, would I have to reprint the image and reprime and everything?
Again, thanks so much!
Rachel:
You can get dozens of prints from one screen without having to recoat, expose etc… If you plan to print more than say 25 or 30 copies of the same design, take these steps at the exposure stage:
Double coat your screen in emulsion (the tutorial already suggests this)before you burn the design in.
After your design is burned in and washed out, let the screen dry and then “double bake” it– throw it back under the 250 watt photo flood bulb WITHOUT the transparency, glass, etc… for another 20 minutes or so. You don’t need to do this in a dark room since the screen has already been burned. This extra step just makes the emulsion extra hard so that your design won’t break down as fast with multiple prints.
If you do those two things, you should even be able to get hundreds of prints of the same design. Just keep an eye on each print as you make them to make sure you notice little areas of the design that may break down or dry up with ink as you’re going. You can easily correct those kinds of interruptions by cleaning the ink off, drying the screen and then starting again at the print stage.
Good luck with your company.
Thank you! very detailed rundown of the process
Thanks so much for the help!
Hi there, I just cannot get one single print right! I am trying to print a reverse image (loads of areas to print) on paper. Even though I am taping the paper down, it continuously get stuck to the mesh. Tried experimenting with ink viscosity with no success. Any ideas please? Using acrylic paint, on normal photocopy paper, off-contact printing at around 1/8 inch distance, hard rubber squeegee. Thanks!
[...] contains all the materials you need (like the one I linked to). This tutorial might also help: No Media Kings ? How to Silkscreen Posters and Shirts If that doesn’t help, then hopefully other members will be able to give some better input. [...]
Hey Shannon,
Many thanks as I have been evolving as a screen printer for the last two months and the conception happened here. (didn’t know you were a Mom in Japan, did ya?)
Anyway, it’s been great fun, a real brain tease and I’ve worked through the regular pitfalls but as I am in my final phase of this birth, I am having some splatter issues. As I lift the screen off (I suspect that’s when) I’m getting splatter from the separation. I tried to pull the shirt tighter and tuck it in from the bottom, but not even any improvement. I’m getting 7 to 12 dots of the smallest degree, but as they gather, they are visible.
Any help from anyone?
Thanks in advance,
david j.
Hi David:
Glad the tutorial is helpful. Are you sure the dots on your shirts are splatter, or are there pinholes in the screen that are letting little flecks of ink through when you print the design?
When your screen is totally clean and DRY, hold it up to the light, or put it on a light table and make sure no little pinholes exist in the blocked out areas. If you see any, just paint them over with emulsion and let it get hardened in the light, or use Screen Filler, a dark reddish substance made just for the purpose of blocking in areas you don’t want to print.
Hope that helps. I can’t think of how the ink would be splattering since ideally the shirt is squeegeed really tightly against the screen while you print, unless it is happening when you pull the screen away from the printed shirt. In that case, you could try using ink with a higher viscosity (less runny).
But it sounds like a case of pinholes to me.
Thanks for the tutorial, it was very helpful. We have silk-screened a few limited edition prints (paper) thus far, and struggle with the ink drying in the screen after about 5-10 prints. We use Speedball inks as well, and use about 10% retardant mixed into the paint. You mentioned “flooding” the image between prints. I wasn’t exactly sure what that means - does it mean spreading ink on the screen between prints? If I do that, don’t I risk getting ink on the paper in a messy way when I go on to the next print? Just wondering what your suggestions are…thanks for your help!
Sub Studio:
Yes, flooding means you run the squeegee over the image area after you’ve lifted the screen off the paper (or fabric) to fill the image area with a layer of ink.
You don’t want too much or the image will bleed through the back pretty quick, just a thin even coat that entirely fills the image areas– no dry spots.
And make sure you paper is not still stuck to the back of the screen. The flood should be done without any printing surface under the screen at all.
Flooding is essential for keeping the screen wet. The reason your screen is clogging and drying after so few prints is because the less ink you have in the image area between prints, the more air can get at the little that is there and dry it.
No, it won’t mess up your paper in between prints because what you are actually printing each time IS the ink that you’ve flooded in between. The ink that you pass under the squeegee is mostly just for lube.
Try a run this way and I think you will see a huge improvement.
hi, shannon
great tutorial, really helped me out.
only problem i am having now is that when i am printing i am often getting big empty streaks in the direction that i am pulling the squeegee.
a couple things that i think might be causing this: maybe there’s not a good enough contact between my squeegee and the print surface because 1 - my squeegee is wider than the image i am printing so the whole thing’s not lubed 2- i’m not pressing hard enough? or maybe 3 - my screen is warped or something since i got it second hand.
also, the streaks aren’t always there.
can you help me out? thanks a million,
brady dee, mtl
Brady:
The streaks could be caused by a few factors.
Are you flooding in between prints? If your screen is drying out that could cause streaks.
Is the ink consistent? If there are dry blobs in the ink, wherever they get under the squeegee can cause streaks.
Is your table top pretty flat? And is your screen really wonky? Anywhere that the screen and printing surface don’t make flat contact can cause streaks.
Are there any dried blobs of ink caked onto your squeegee, or are there any nicks along the edge of the squeegee that touches the screen?
Streaks are most often caused by imperfections in the squeegee not the screen. Always clean it really well after printing and store it in such a way that the rubber doesn’t contact any surface that could cause it to bend or get nicks in it.
Also, do you have the right kind of squeegee for your printing surface? Cloth needs a more pliable squeegee with rounder edges and paper needs a stiffer squeegee with totally sharp edges. The more absorbent the surface, the more pliable the squeegee should be.
thanks for the tips. lets hope i get better results next time!
brady dee
i’m an artist and i have some of my shirts in stores here in calif. i want to have more control over the process . i usually draw what i want then i might bring it into photoshop and or illustrator. i want to know what i need to burn the image on to the screen. and i want to know how to do discharge and plasticharge. please help
any information on the technique of ‘discharging and plasticharge would be appreciated. how do you burn the image on to the screen also. thanks
David:
Plasticharge is a bit out of my scope. Sorry. Instructions on how to burn the image on a screen form the bulk of the tutorial already.
[...] No Media Kings » How to Silkscreen Posters and Shirts (tags: clothing design howto tutorial crafts) [...]