How to Silkscreen Posters and Shirts No Media Kings. Silkscreening is such a great happy medium nestled comfortably half way between hand drawn and mass production, more colourful than photocopying and with an aesthetic all its own. Artist Shannon Gerard broke out her silkscreening gear to make cool shirts and posters for her upcoming comic launch, and despite being crazy busy has shared her skills in this funny and detailed tutorial. Read on to learn how to print your own posters, shirts, or whatever you fancy printing on, and how the Virgin Mary and Spiderman join forces to help her out. Home Screenprinting Tutorialby Shannon Gerard. Choosing and Preparing Your Screen. Opengl 2.0 For Windows 7 32 Bit'>Opengl 2.0 For Windows 7 32 Bit. What you need A screen with the right mesh count for your printing surface Mr. Clean or any water based degreasing agent. The first thing you need when setting up a home print shop is the screen I know, weird. Screens with aluminium frames last much longer than wooden frames which warp after repeated washings. Aluminium screens are usually only 1. Image.png19.png' alt='Computer Says There Is No Printer Installed Word' title='Computer Says There Is No Printer Installed Word' />A sturdy aluminium screen will continue to lie flat on the printing surface after multiple uses and the mesh is pulled much tighter around an aluminium frame which produces a crisper printed image. Theyre also a lot easier to wash out than wooden screens. The other major factor to consider is mesh count. The mesh count refers the tightness of the weave in the mesh fabric of the screen. A higher mesh count means the fibres of the mesh are closer together and a lower count means the fibres are more loosely woven, so more ink can pass through the screen. The Commodore 128 was a unique and intelligently designed machine. I remember reading about it in the Summer of 1985 in a computer magazine and being intrigued by its. I seem to have an issue with my Win 7 64 bit specced PC and Epson printers. Id had problems getting my old Epson R300 printer communicating with my. If you are printing on paper, you want a screen with a mesh count of about 2. A screen that tight will allow you to print images with finer details and thinner lines. Since fabric is generally more absorbent than paper, you need a screen that lets through more ink when printing on t shirts, totebags, or anything cloth. For fabric printing, you should use a screen with a mesh count of 1. I use 1. 10. A lot of folks also opt for a mesh count of about 1. If you live in Toronto, the best place to buy screens and related materials its the cheapest too, is G S Dye and Accessories at Dundas and University. Dixon, who runs G S, knows everything about fabric printing I almost believe he could bring about world peace and is also very helpful about supplies and advice. His website has very detailed information about printing including some in depth tutorials and awesome diagrams of home set ups. Once you have bought your screen, the first important thing to do is wash it out with cold water and a degreasing agent I use the unfortunately gender specific Mr. Clean, the concentration a little bit weaker than what you would put on thefloor. Getting any grease out helps the emulsion to bond with the fabric which gives you a crisper stencil. Also important is to understand the orientation of your screen not the gender specific kind. The flat back of the screen which sits on the printing surface is called the print side or paper side and the front of the screen, recessed inside the lip of the frame, is called the squeegee side. Preparing Your Artwork. What you need Original artwork with a high contrast Transparency film. Screen printing is a very flat medium, so images that are starkly contrasted work best. When preparing your artwork to be burned to the screen to create the stencil, work in black and white only grey tones and the subtleties of photographic images will not produce a workable stencil. If you start with a photo, as in the example below, reduce the information to a line drawing, or apply a filter or halftone screen in Photoshop which will reduce the image to a series of dots. I used the photo on the left as a source to produce the drawing on the right, but I liked the red colour of the boxing gloves and wanted to include that in the final print. You can print in any colour you want, but the artwork used to make the stencil must be black. I coloured in the glove shapes, making sure they remained registered correctly to the drawing Every colour you want to print requires a separate stencil. Once you have the artwork prepared, print or photocopy it onto transparent film, and you will be ready to produce the screen stencil. It is very important that the black areas printed on the transparency are completely opaque, so hold it up to the light and make sure all the black lines are totally dense. Burning the Stencil. What you need The screen Emulsion and sensitiser A scoop coater or squeegee Rubber gloves A rubber spatula A darkroom and photosafe light Black bristol board, or black cloth or felt Transparencies containing your artwork A sheet of glass A light fixture with a 2. A timer A spray bottle full of cold water A shower head, spray nozzle or garden hose. This is the most intensive step in the screenprinting process, but if you take a little extra care when making the stencil, the printing process will go super fast. The first thing to do, after your screen is degreased and completely dry, is to coat the screen in emulsion. Emulsion is the photosensitive goop that will make the stencil on the screen. In areas where the emulsion hardens, the screen is blocked so no ink can pass through. In areas where the emulsion is kept soft and eventually washed out of the screen, the ink will pass through to produce your print. Emulsion is hardened by exposure to light, so you need to conduct this entire process in a darkroom using photosafe lights to see by. I use the extremely ghetto mechanism of a Blessed Virgin Mary BVM night light with a red christmas tree bulb inside witness the shame below and coat my screens in our windowless bathroom it gets worse. Emulsion comes in two parts, the emulsion proper and a small bottle of sensitiser. Working by the red light of your own BVM, mix the emulsion with the sensitiser each brand comes with its own set of instructions on the label. Once sensitised, emulsion is good for about 3 weeks at room temperature, or about 3 months tops it gets iffy at the end of those 3 months if refrigerated. Always wear glovesThose photo chemicals are nasty To coat the screen, you can invest in a scoop coater about 1. A scoop coater is a very easy to use trough which holds the emulsion and deposits a nice even, thin coat on the screen. If youre using the squeegee or smoother option, use a spatula to spread a line of emulsion along one end of the screen See below and then, pressing very firmly with the squeegee, drag the line of emulsion down or up the screen until it is evenly coated with emulsion. It is very important to have a thin, even coat of emulsion on the screen, uninterrupted by drips or blobby areas that could mess up the clarity of your stencil. Drivers License Manitoba Winnipeg. I always double coat my screen by applying one coat to the paper side and another to the squeegee side. You must double coat all in one go while the first coat is still freshly wet. Leave the coated screen in the dark to dry for at least 2 hours. Some tutorials say one hour, but I always have bad results with that timeline because the emulsion is not ready. The important thing is that the emulsion is completely dry before you expose your image. No stickiness allowed. Once the coated screen is dry, you can expose it. It is easy to set up a home exposure unit by arranging materials in this order from bottom to top 1. Dont forget to set up this exposure unit inside the darkroomTechnology and Science News ABC News.