Screen Printing Forum

where to begin? first of all i should start by introducing myself. i'm a senior majoring in computer graphics and minoring in art and design.

i've always been curious about screen printing but was too intimidated to get into it. i think i want to get into it as a hobby.
now i'm ready to get my hands dirty. i'd like to start screen printing fabrics and maybe move on to making posters but i don't know where to start. from what i've read screen printing is much more of an art than a science. i was thinking of picking up speedball's super value fabric screen-printing kit from my local michael's. would this suffice to get me started? what do i need to know? any great tutorials out there?

thanks.

I think a more on the mark description of screenprinting would be the science of reproducing art in quantity on varying substrates. If you want to start with fabrics, pick up a small used press and supplies and get dirty. There is a classified section on this site and suppliers are readily availble and numerous on the web. Naz Dar, Tubelite, etc. Good luck and have fun.

Does your school offer serigraphy as an art course?

Ask, it may be called something else.

hey, yaleteamsandtees. actually, my friend just told me it does. i told him i was interested in starting screen printing and he told me our university offered the course. who knew?

thanks for the reply, d f. as a poor college kid that option might be a little out of my budget range. do you think a simple speedball kit would be a better, cheaper starting point to do one or two color experimental prints with? i'm not looking for something completely clean and efficient. i actually want somewhat of a distressed/messy look. i kind of want the medium to show through.

also, i've been reading a lot about emulsion. it sounds kind of tricky. is it easier when you actually do it? can you print varying levels of positive space (shades of grey / make pink from white / etc.)? lastly, i'd like to know how and where you get these positive prints made. can you use a transparency as a positve or does it have to be film / vellum / etc.? because i know less about those

sorry your answers had to be met with more questions. haha. but thanks for the help

Maybe a part or full time job at a local t-shirt printer? Get paid to learn. I use college and high school help from time to time. Even taught commercial art at a local high school for a few years. You're not going to get a half tone print with a speedball kit. You can learn a bit from it though. I prefer emulsion over film. Used blue poly for years, been using emulsion a long time with excellent results. All you need is a scoop coater and some experience. Instructions come with each bucket. You can get some good frames, clamps and a squeegee or two from tubelite or melray industries to get started playing around. If you can't find clamps, I've probably got a few unused pair laying around. There are films that you can put through a desktop inkjet and get decent positives to start. Photoshop, corel or illustrator are some of the better inexpensive programs to start designing in. Corel is probably the most user friendly (jmo). Mostly just jump in, get your hands dirty and have fun with it.

Dames wrote:also, i've been reading a lot about emulsion. it sounds kind of tricky. is it easier when you actually do it?

Emulsion is easy. Spend a little money on a good scoop coater. It makes applying the emulsion a breeze.

Dames wrote:lastly, i'd like to know how and where you get these positive prints made. can you use a transparency as a positve or does it have to be film / vellum / etc.? because i know less about those

You can use transparancy paper. In fact almost all the printing I've done has been with transparancy paper. The important thing to remember is that you need a solid, black print on the transparancy to block the uv light from the emulsion covered screen. If your positive isn't dark enough, you will not produce a stensil.

It used to be that you needed a real expensive device call an imagesetter to produce film positives. While this is still a great way to make your positives, many inkjet printers can now produce excellent results.

With inkjet printers, you really should use a RIP to produce dark positives. A RIP is a special driver that tells your inkjet to lay down more ink than you can get with normal print drivers. The problem here is that, for someone just starting out, a RIP is too expensive. $500 or more.

I know lots of guys who use laser printers or make their films at Kincos on a color copier. This is probably your best source for positives when you are just starting out. They provide a low upfront cost and the positives work well enough. The biggest drawback would be that the film has a tendancy to shrink when printed with a laser printer or copier. This creates a problem for printing multi-color jobs because the film never shrinks uniformly from one film to the next.

Anyway, have fun and good-luck.

I use myriad film with my laser printer. NO SHRINKAGE
but its a tad expensive.