Learn to print your own designs onto fabric. This four-hour class is an easy way to learn something new by yourself, with a friend or in groups. This is an expressive gift-giving idea and an economical way of seeing your art come to life. Seize the modes of production! Make it yourself!
All materials come with the class, including a T-shirt, an 8.5" X 11" re-usable screen, plus printed instructions for future reference.
You bring your own garment(s) and we design and print it together using our pool of designs. This class is available at Made 4 You in Kingston or at my studio on Wellington.
I have taught grade 7/8 full-day classes, done live screenprinting at outdoor events, made custom shirts on-site in university hallways and reclaimed parking spaces! I've had bands come over and make their own shirts in my studio, I love packing up my van and going to a friend's house and setting up a studio on their porch. Let me know if you have an idea we can work on together!
Mixed CDs, bags of used t-shirts, crafty items and food will be considered in lieu of 50% of class price.
Homemade option: wood, nails or screws, drill, hammer or screwdriver, saw Remember: at least one side must be flush to a flat surface. L-brackets reinforce corners Cheap and easy option: old picture frame from thrift store.
Remember: some frames are weak and will wobble side to side when you apply pressure. These are not good options. Some frames have wood that is very difficult to staple into. Not worth it at all. Advanced option: buy or build a screenprinting frame which allows you to use backer rod or window screen trim to stretch your screen without using staples. This allows you to re-use screens which you had previously removed.
Materials: mesh, staples, staple gun, tape
Cheap and easy option: find gauze sheers (curtains) at a thrift store ($4-10 for a large piece). Wash mesh to remove any oils or foreign matter. If you work with wet mesh, your final screen will be tighter and give you finer detail. (things shrink as they dry!) Staple mesh to frame in a 12:00-6:00, 3:00-9:00 pattern, working from the middle to the corners. Stretch mesh as tight as you can without ripping it. If you need to hammer in the staples to make them secure against the frame, keep stretching the mesh as you hammer. Finish all edges of frame (top and underside of frame) with either duct tape or a combination of butchers tape and lacquer. This protects the wood and prevents errant threads from sticking to your emulsion or paint.
Advanced option: buy professional screenprinting mesh (more expensive) and select whichever thread count suits your image. Mesh comes many different threads per inch, 280 tpi being good for high detail images but will clog easier, 158 tpi being about the same as gauze curtains and allows a lot of ink to flow through the screen: a good general purpose mesh count for fabric printing. This mesh can be cleaned with emulsion remover and re-used many times. For a very tight screen, staple three times initially and then use a table vise to hold the screen and pull frame down until desired tension has been reached.
Materials: old cassette case or squeegee, emulsion
Emulsion costs about $20-$30 per bottle, if you don t buy a kit you may need to also buy sensitizer ($6-8). Mix sensitizer and emulsion: fill sensitizer bottle ae full with water. Shake well, and mix thoroughly. Chopsticks work well as stir sticks. Emulsion is toxic, be careful to store it away from pets and kids and don t get any in your eyes!! Once you have activated the emulsion it s best to keep it refrigerated where it will have a shelf life of six months.
The next step is best done by candlelight, red light, or in a dimly lit room. Regular light bulbs are too dim to affect the emulsion in a short amount of time, so if you work quickly you should be OK!
Using a spoon, pour a bead of emulsion along the side of the mesh and spread it evenly with a squeegee or old cassette case. Be careful to not leave any big blobs of emulsion as they will not wash out. Try to avoid streaks and fill in all pinholes. Wipe away excess emulsion and set to dry in a dark area (ie: a closet, using a towel to fill in gaps which allow unwanted light in, or cardboard box covered in blankets or lots of heavy black plastic).
A screen should take about a half hour to dry in a well-ventilated closet. In smaller, less ventilated areas, let it sit overnight and it should be dry by morning.
For a screen that you will be using over 100 times, or to fill in pinholes, add a second coat of emulsion once the first is completely dry.
Materials: photocopier or printer, transparencies (acetate sheets), your design
Photocopy your design onto two transparencies. This costs under a dollar each at most copy shops. Or, use a printer and printer friendly transparencies. If you have confidence and a black sharpie, you can draw your design directly onto a transparency, making all lines as opaque as possible.
Materials needed: black cloth, lights, glass, fan, timer, measuring tape
Cheap option: use reading lamps with 150 w bulbs. Use a tinfoil pie plate to reflect the light evenly over the surface of your screen. Cover table in black cloth to prevent reflection back up to underside of screen. Cover transparencies with glass to prevent light from leaking under the black parts of the image. Set up your lamps to the proper height and set up a timer to remind you when its all done. Use a fan to cool down your screen as it exposes, as heat and light will both affect the exposure process. If you can find a fancy film light (250-300 W) your exposure time will be greatly reduced.
If you want to go really cheap and very experimental you could also use the sun on a bright sunny day. You may not get consistent results but with intuition and trial and error you should be able to use this method. To expose with the sun takes three minutes or so. You will be able to see the emulsion becoming a darker green and can use this as one of your indicators as to when it is exposed properly. Speaking of pro: need free emulsion samples? Call up a big screenprinting supply warehouse and tell them you are a potential client looking for samples. They usually have leftovers at the bottom of jugs or small samples available. Some crazy emulsions are available these days: there are some that burn the image in ONE MINUTE?!?!
Exposure charts are provided with Speedball emulsion kits, and a chart is provided on the last page of this manual for your convenience!
After you have exposed your image, you will get a stencil by rinsing all unexposed emulsion. A detachable shower head with a jet setting will give you the pressure you need, and a toothbrush can help get emulsion out of tricky areas, but be careful not to agitate the emulsion too much. It isn t as hardcore as you!!
Advanced method: find a pressure washer and have a shower as a rinse booth. Don t use your personal shower unless you re comfortable with chemical residue lifting up and joining you when you shower. A basement shower or studio setup would work fine.
Let your screen upside down (so you can see a positive image) to drip dry for a while. If you feel the screen was underexposed, you can burn it again to fully set the image.
Materials: paint, squeegee, water for cleaning up, rags.
FYI: There are three types of ink most commonly used in screenprinting. Acrylic, screenprinting ink for fabrics or paper, and plastisol. Plastisol is some crazy chemical plastic crap that needs mineral spirits to clean it and is not recommended for home applications. Acrylic is inexpensive and widely available and will not wash off your clothes. It cures by drying, and can be heat set with an iron and paper interface for three minutes to ensure a longer lasting image. Screenprinting inks are not too much more expensive than medium quality acrylics and contain a fabric medium which helps them connect better with fabric. They are also runnier, which makes them pass more easily through a tighter mesh than a heavy bodied acrylic would.
Squeegees come in different forms. The professional option is a rubber squeegee which will push the ink through your screen evenly. The cheap option is the old cassette case, separated so that you have a squeegee like implement which is both disposable and almost always free. The old cassette case also allows you to direct the ink where you want it to go, which helps for printing select areas without the use of tape.
Cover with tape any areas of your screen you do not wish ink to squeeze through, paying attention to borders, corners, neighbouring images. Scoop a line of ink onto the screen just above your image. Hold your squeegee at a 45 degree angle and pull the ink lightly towards you, spreading it over the image but not applying any more pressure than you need to smooth the ink over the screen. Now, holding your squeegee at the same angle, press the ink through the screen as you drag the squeegee along. Lift your screen up, and voila! You have printed your design.
