So basically you want to find a piece of artwork that is in a black and white format. You can
print that on a transparency or a film. But you have to get yourself a scoop coater which you fill
with the molds in. that you're going to have to buy from a screen print shop along with the
screen. Then what you do is you fill that scoop coater with emulsion and you want to hold that at
an angle to the screen and coat both sides of the screen. We do it twice on each side.
The emulsion basically creates palette for you on that open screen, which allows you to create
some artwork on that open palette so that you can print it.
This is the point where you want to tape the film up to your coated screen after the emulsion has
dried. You always tape it to the screen reverse. So that when you put the screen face down, your
image is going to be face in the direction that you want.
At the shop we used exposure unit. At home, you could it on a kitchen table. If you have a light
hanging above it, what you could is stack up a bunch of books so that you can lay your screen
that already has the taped film to it. And you can lay it real close, like 6 inches to the bottom of a
light bulb that’s hanging above your kitchen table.
After the screen is set and it basically made the emulsion rock hard where the light hit. You can
peel off the film and because the light never went through the black ink on the transparency or
your film, the emulsion on the other side will be able to wash out with a hose that you can do in
your backyard with a garden hose.
The scoop coater that you get from a screen printing shop, never completely coats the screen
from frame to frame. There's always a gap on all sides. So you want to cover that gap with tape
so that when you're printing, you don’t get a ran off ink that squeezes through the outside of the
open screen.
So you're printing materials, you're going to need to print are obviously your ink. Definitely
recommend the water based. Environmentally friendly and its very soft ink. And also, besides
the ink, you're going to need some printing squeegees, as wide as the artwork is or wider than the
artwork. So that when you make a pass, it will cover the entire image.
At this point, you just want to lay in a big bead along the top of one side of the screen. Usually
the top side so when you pull down with the squeegee, you're going to be pulling at it towards
your stomach. This is basically where you're going to be using the squeegee to press the ink
through the open screen. Pulling the squeegee, you really want to make sure that you pull it out
in an even speed. The more even, the consistent, the cleaner the print will look.
Generally, they say the cure temperature is 330 degrees Fahrenheit. Proceed with caution, you
can do it in your oven at home. Make sure you keep an eye on it. If it doesn’t cure all the way,
when you put it through a washing machine, the ink will slowly start to come off.
So this is the same process as printing a T-shirt. You want to pull with a consistent motion.
When you're lifting the screen off of the paper, you want to make sure that you have someone or
something holding the paper to the table while you slowly pull the screen so that they don’t stay
stuck together.