A year or so ago, I wanted to get into screen printing, so I bought (aka my mom gave me) a Speedball starter set. It came with a screen, ink, and even everything photo emulsion. I thought I had it made.
I didn't. I couldn't get anything to look good, no matter how hard I tried. The ink either bled like crazy or didn't go through the screen. And forget photo emulsion, that was way too hard.
The next summer, someone taught me a really easy way to silkscreen on to paper. Since then, I have developed that technique and I'm going to show share with you what I know. Because let's be honest, you can never have too many silkscreening tutorials.
First off, what is silkscreening?
Basically, the action is like spreading butter on toast, but you're spreading ink across a screen, and with a "squeegee" instead of a butter knife. Along the way across the screen, the ink goes through little tiny holes and sticks to what you're printing on.
That's really the easiest way to put it.
You control what the image looks like by putting a stencil between the screen and the material you're printing on. In this case, we're printing on a T-shirt. The ink only affects the section of the shirt that isn't covered by the stencil. To make a complicated image, people usually put photo emulsion on the screen that makes a stencil using light. We're not doing that. That's way too hard for a beginner like you and I don't even know how to do it right. We're going a little more hands on.
I didn't. I couldn't get anything to look good, no matter how hard I tried. The ink either bled like crazy or didn't go through the screen. And forget photo emulsion, that was way too hard.
The next summer, someone taught me a really easy way to silkscreen on to paper. Since then, I have developed that technique and I'm going to show share with you what I know. Because let's be honest, you can never have too many silkscreening tutorials.
First off, what is silkscreening?
Basically, the action is like spreading butter on toast, but you're spreading ink across a screen, and with a "squeegee" instead of a butter knife. Along the way across the screen, the ink goes through little tiny holes and sticks to what you're printing on.
That's really the easiest way to put it.
You control what the image looks like by putting a stencil between the screen and the material you're printing on. In this case, we're printing on a T-shirt. The ink only affects the section of the shirt that isn't covered by the stencil. To make a complicated image, people usually put photo emulsion on the screen that makes a stencil using light. We're not doing that. That's way too hard for a beginner like you and I don't even know how to do it right. We're going a little more hands on.
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Signing UpStep 1: Designing a Good Stencil
The first step to making a stencil is choosing a design. We're going to be making the stencil by hand. You want a design that won't be impossible to make into a stencil. Basically, if it's too much work to trace it with a pencil, it's way too much work to print using this method.
Also, think about islands. (Not tropical islands, but islands in your design.) For example, the letter "A" has one island: the white triangle on top. The letter "B" has two. C has none. It's much easier to print a V than an A, but don't be too discouraged. Islands aren't impossible as long as you keep the number of them down and the size of them up. A couple A's the size of CD's isn't bad at all. "AAAAA" the size you're seeing them on your screen isn’t going to happen. If you have the need for very small islands, the advantages this method has over photo emulsion start to disappear. As you get better at this method, you can make islands smaller and use more of them, but if you want to make small text, or detailed lines, learn to use photo emulsion eventually.
You can only print one solid color at a time. In this case, I'm printing the Instructables robot on to a grey shirt. I'm using gray as the background to save me a step, since gray is a color in the design. You don't have to do this, but it saves ink and time. Why not?
For this design, I'm using black as the base coat. This means that every other color will be printed on top of the black ink, not the shirt itself. (Except the gray, since the shirt is gray, but that doesn’t count since it’s not ink.) I will demonstrate how to make the first stencil, but every other stencil is made the same way.
NOTE: Don't use black as the base coat. Use colors, and then put black on top. It looks much better.
Also, think about islands. (Not tropical islands, but islands in your design.) For example, the letter "A" has one island: the white triangle on top. The letter "B" has two. C has none. It's much easier to print a V than an A, but don't be too discouraged. Islands aren't impossible as long as you keep the number of them down and the size of them up. A couple A's the size of CD's isn't bad at all. "AAAAA" the size you're seeing them on your screen isn’t going to happen. If you have the need for very small islands, the advantages this method has over photo emulsion start to disappear. As you get better at this method, you can make islands smaller and use more of them, but if you want to make small text, or detailed lines, learn to use photo emulsion eventually.
You can only print one solid color at a time. In this case, I'm printing the Instructables robot on to a grey shirt. I'm using gray as the background to save me a step, since gray is a color in the design. You don't have to do this, but it saves ink and time. Why not?
For this design, I'm using black as the base coat. This means that every other color will be printed on top of the black ink, not the shirt itself. (Except the gray, since the shirt is gray, but that doesn’t count since it’s not ink.) I will demonstrate how to make the first stencil, but every other stencil is made the same way.
NOTE: Don't use black as the base coat. Use colors, and then put black on top. It looks much better.
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My real question (and my first experiment) is how it will look if I add 2 colors to the well and pull them through: will I get a nice mixture and variety of color, or will it come out junky...
thanks for sharing your ideas!
I have no skill or patience for silk screening. I also started with the speedball kit. I recently picked up a speedball lino but kit, and it seems to be awful too. Now I'm beginning to think it's not just me!
this is a great starter kit, and it's a pretty good price too. If you can mix colors, you can make any color you want.
Suggestion: Have you tried using GLAD Press'n Seal instead of scotch tape to transfer over your island pieces? It wont peel up your paper like scotch tape sometimes does. They also make something called application tape, but Press'n Seal works almost just as good and is easy to find.
Question: How the heck do you get your round cuts so smooth?! I jokingly hate your skill; those compound curves are hard to cut! Good on you!
About the cuts... I will tell you, many knife tips died during the making of this instructable!
Making the screens using your example
1. Using freezer paper or contact paper in an INKJET printer, print one copy of the robot for each color in the final image. Yours would have orange, red, blue, white, and black.
2. Cut out the entire robot (anything you want to be orange background) on one page. Cut out the tiny detailed colors on the other pages. In your example it would be red (head detail), white (finger and foot detail), and blue (button/lights detail).
3. Stick the robot onto the first screen.
4. Spray paint the screen with black (or heavily pigmented) acrylic paint (Rustoleum spray?) and let that dry.
5. Peel off the paper.
6. Repeat for the various colors. If you printed them all at the same time, registration should be easy.
What you have left is the outline of the robot and the holes. The black paint fills the holes in the screen creating a mask. Your next screen might have only the eyes, and so on. To make the final black lines, you could do that by hand with a Sharpie or black paint on a brush/sponge.
If you are only going to make one shirt, then you could simply stick the negative image (as a mask) to the shirt with the sticky paper and spray paint through the mask with orange acrylic spray paint. This method skips the screen and all the clean up. If you are good with an airbrush, this could be very interesting.
Any acrylic paint from the hardware store will work. Let them mix your colors for you. All you have to do is pick a paint chip from the display and pick your white paint.
Along the lines of making your a better I'ble, if you had listed the tools and materials you need in step 2 the reader would not have to flip back and forth looking to find what you are talking about.
nice feeling to wear a t shirt which is handmade :)