The easiest way to get me to take an interest in something is to ask me for advice. Tony did that the other day: he asked how he could get one of his designs on some t-shirts and avoid the iron-on transfer process.  I read an Instructable by Threadbanger and thought, “I could do this!”. I was right. Read on.

Materials:

• A thin-mesh fabric such as might be appropriate for a sheer curtain
• Drawing tools (Paper plus pens/pencils/markers etc.)
• Embroidery Hoop
• Water-proof glue. I used Mod Podge
• Something flat & stiff to use as a squeegee

Click images for larger size.

Step 1: Design

First, come up with a cool design that’s way out of your league as a first-timer (see Space Mountain).

Then, try not to burn up in the atmosphere as you make your descent back to real life. This process requires “painting” your screen with glue. The reasonable minimum for line thickness is about 1mm.

Come up with something fun & easy (see snail above). Then take the time to develop your idea until you’re happy with it.

Once you have it right, carefully draw your full-size final artwork:

Step 2: Make screen

Mounting the fabric in the hoop is easy.

1. Lay the inner hoop on the table.
2. Spread the fabric on top of the inner hoop.
3. With the outer hoop generously adjusted open, push it down over the inner hoop & fabric.
4. Pull & stretch fabric between the two hoops as you tighten the outer hoop – you want it just about as tight as it will get without causing distortions in the fabric surface.

Step 3: Transfer design to screen

1. Lay your art onto the table.
2. Set the screen on top of it with the fabric touching the art. The fabric should be on the bottom (creating a rink-shape), not on the top (which would create a drum-shape).
3. Use a ball point pen, or a pencil, to trace the design onto the fabric.
4. Soon you will cover the screen with a glue that will stop ink from going through the screen. I only wanted to ink a shirt with this snail, so I will have to glue all around the dark areas of my design. Your design may call for the opposite approach.

I made my snail really close to the edge to save space. Since this a huge screen, I figure I can fit several small tests onto it.

Step 3: Glue ‘around’ design

I used a small paint brush to cover the non-design areas of the screen with a layer of Mod Podge. This was the hardest part of the whole project. It took a while to figure out the “right amount” of glue to add to the screen. Sorry – no pictures.

Step 4: Print

When your screen is completely dry, you’re ready to go. These steps are for a t-shirt, but you can take similar steps for

1. Clean & iron shirt.
2. Place “spacer” inside of shirt – I used a 1.5″ thick piece of wood.
3. Place a sheet of parchment paper between the wood spacer & the area of the shirt to be printed on.
4. Smooth shirt. I folded excess material below the block of wood. This helps to prevent wrinkles which can interrupt the printing. I personally like the shirt to be  taught, but not stretched.
5. Position the frame over the shirt.
6. Pour a small amount of fabric ink onto the screen. I like to pour it onto a glued area.
7. Use your squeegee or other flat object to scrape the ink across all design areas.
8. Don’t dawdle, just do it smoothly & quickly. Finish your strokes in a glued area, pooling excess ink in an place that will not fall through onto the shirt.
9. From one side of the frame, SLOWLY “peel” the screen away from the shirt.

Step 5: Finishing

Wait for the ink to dry completely, then place more parchment paper over the printed area. Iron it on medium-high heat. This will help the print last longer.

What next?

Doing it properly, obviously! I would still like to try my Space Mountain design, but I’m sure I would need to do the  photo emulsion process to meet the demands of the line-art. Also, you might want to consider mixing the ink with a transparent base to increase the number of prints you can make with the same amount of ink; but it does increase drying time.

I had a lot of fun doing this & now I know I can do it whenever I want for real cheap. If you’re interested in screenprinting, but don’t know where to start just do what I did – dive in head first. Search Instructables.com, to see other cheap DIY ways to get your hands dirty. Demystifying the printing process is a lot of fun.

I’m also reading Screenprinting: The complete water-based approach, which is a fine book that describes non-toxic methods for screenprinting – great book so far.

Tags: cheap, DIY, screen print, screenprint, snail

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Projects, Show & Tell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.