1st project: your name on your shirt

Materials needed:

1. Silkscreen (100 mesh)

2. squeegee

3. silkscreen paint (there are many types available in the market; embossed, ordinary, superwhite, etc.,)
4. green film (old school) or photo emulsion (is what I suggest)
5. artwork (a computerized print of your name for a start)
6. technical pen (.05) 7. t-shirt 8. oh! before I forget, you also need a plastic spreader (to coat your screen with the emulsion)
7. a lamp or the sun (as an alternative)

Other odds...

• 2" Masking tape to seal the inside of the frame and screen. To prevent leaks around the edges.
• teaspoon for dipping ink and emulsion.
• newspapers or scrap paper for "trial prints"
  
• A damp rag and dry rag to clean your hands if you get them in the ink.
  
• Dish detergent for washing ink from screen.
• a soft toothbrush as well, for cleaning the screen with stubborn paint
• water sprayer (like the one they use in beauty parlors)
  
• Sink area where you won't get into too much trouble if you spray some water about!
• a stencil remover
  
• a clear flat glass (to firmly hold the artwork on the screen when you're exposing it to the light)
  

Preparation:

1. Coat the screen by first pouring an ample amount of emulsion on one end of the plastic spreader. Spread it evenly and thinly on the front-side of the screen (t-shirt side or top side)

2. Drying the coated screen ( In an area AWAY FROM LIGHT AND HEAT, set the screen to dry horizontally, bottom side down (or squeegee side)

3. Artwork should be transferred to acetate (by photocopying) this is also called "POSITIVE"
>> make sure the artwork on the acetate would look the same as your original print-out.
>> if you place the acetate below a light bulb and you could see a light passing through the artwork, use the technical pen to darken the fonts very carefully ( because the final outcome of your t-shirt design would depend on your artwork)

EXPOSURE TIME

4. It takes about 1 hour to expose a screen with a normal 300 watt bulb separated by 17 inches, so it is not necessary to work in a "dark room". However, sunlight is much richer in UV, and normally I expose the screen on an afternoon (about 12p.m.) in just (exactly) 30 seconds.

5. But while you're learning the process, try it your way first. Estimate the exposure time. The emulsion will probably come with some instructions. (Remember that exposure time is inversely proportional to lamp wattage and is proportional to the square of the distance between the lamp and the screen.)

6. Lay the silk screen, under the lamp. Lay the artwork, centered and face down, on the silk screen. carefully place the glass over all this to hold the artwork in place firmly against the screen. It might be necessary to put a flat surface, like a large book under the screen to keep everyting firmly together.

7. turn on the lamp (time this carefully, record it if you need to, as you light need to repeat this with more or lesser time)

8. Turn off the lamp

9. Go to the sink and wash the screen with the water sprayer. You'll notice that the artwork will wash-out. To check, hold the screen up toward a lamp and look thru it. Check the whole artwork! If some areas do not seem to clear properly, then use the soft toothbrush, but not vigorously.

If the time estimate was right, we're just about done... set the screen aside to dry.

If not, mop all the moisture off the screen and use the stencil remover to remove any of the emulsion that is left. Set it aside to dry. Adjust your time estimate, and start over with step 1.

10. Now we're ready to start...

PRINTING

1. Put ink across one end of the screen, about the width of the squeegie.

2. Place the t-shirt under the screen.

3. Use the squeegie to gather a part of the ink and to spread it across the screen (flood stroke)

4. Then, firmly stroke the squeegie across the screen again to press the ink through the screen onto the t-shirt.

5. Carefully remove the t-shirt from beneath the screen. Watch out! The ink will dry in the screen within about a minute, so you gotta keep printing or wash the ink out of the screen.

6. Check out your very first t-shirt printing project.

HAVE FUN!!