Screenprinting is a unique way of printing a design onto textiles or paper using ink, which is pushed through a mesh. Anyone can do the technique with a bit of setup, meaning you can use one design and print it onto many different materials to either get a consistent look, or with some experimenting, to make every press look slightly different.
To get started screenprinting yourself, two of the key things to investigate are the lighting options for exposing your prints and the space you’ll be working in.
What lights do you need for screenprinting?
There’s the option to use sunlight to expose your screenprints to make them fully visible, but this isn’t always an option. You may want to be able to expose your prints after dark, especially if you’re working through the months when the days are shorter or on days when the weather isn’t in your favor. With the right lights, you’ll be able to expose your prints any time you like, but you’ll need to get the right ones.
The two main options are to purchase a UV exposure kit, or buy a 1000-watt halogen bulb and build an exposure station yourself. The first option will take less time, but is significantly more expensive, so the decision comes down to the type of screenprinting station you’d like. If you’re creating a higher-end studio, then a UV kit may be the best option, or if you’re printing at home, then a home-made station will be far more cost-effective.
If you’re building your exposure unit, then the right choice of light is a 1000-watt halogen floodlight, which should be around 16 inches away from the screen. You can get a floodlight from eBay or online for a reasonable price, and with this, your exposure times will be a very reasonable 4-5 minutes.
Building your screen press station
Having a suitable workstation when creating screen press prints should be a high priority, as having all of your materials set out ready to move from one step to the next will make the process much more comfortable. Like your lighting setup, your options will mainly be dependent on your budget, but you don’t need to invest too much to have a perfectly functional area to do your screenprinting. If you’re printing onto t-shirts as many people will be, then a pre-built screen carousel may be a good investment, but probably only if you’re planning on printing a sizable number of shirts. A more budget-friendly option would be to build a screenprinting bench yourself and find plans for this. If you want to print a significant number of items and this all seems like too much, you may want to consider contacting a company like https://thrivescreenprinting.com/apparel-fulfillment-services/ to have this done for you.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Screenprinting
1. Choose your material.
The first decision you need to make is what you’re going to screenprint onto, from paper to textiles. This will have an impact on what materials and techniques you’ll need to use. For example, if you’re printing on a textile material like a t-shirt, you’ll need to use a mesh that has a lower thread count and allows more ink to pass through the material you’re using for your print. When printing on paper, you’ll want to increase your mesh to a thread-count of around 120 per inch to help you get all the detail that you can print onto paper.
2. Screen preparation
Once you have your material and the mesh that will best print onto it, you can start to prepare your screen. The first thing to do is to de-grease it, which will help the emulsion stay on the mesh as you’re printing. First, clean your screen fully, wear gloves and goggles for protection, and rinse all the de-greaser off the screen when you’re done. When finished, take a rag and dry the screen ready to be coated.
3. Coating your screen
With your screen fully prepared, you can start coating it in the emulsion, which needs to happen in a dimly lit room to ensure that no UV light can impact it. Start by taking the emulsion and pouring it into a trough that’s large enough to hold the necessary amount you need for the print. Start at the bottom and apply to your screen at a 45-degree angle, working your way bottom to top, aiming to cover the screen as evenly as possible. With the screen coated, you can lift it upright and let the emulsion run off the bottom, making sure to catch it with your trough! The screen is left to dry in your darkroom in a horizontal position, making sure that nothing can contaminate it, as dust particles might ruin your print.
4. Prepare your design.
There are a few ways to prepare the design you’ll print, starting with purchasing them ready-made. This is the most straightforward option, but most people that are screenprinting want to use a design they have created themselves, either by hand or often, on a computer. Some good tools to use for designing on your PC are Photoshop or Illustrator by Adobe, which cost money to buy the license but allows you to create anything you can think of. With your design finished, you’ll then want to print it onto transparency paper ready to use in your screenprinting project. You’ll want to make sure that the design you’re using is smaller than the screen you’ve prepared, so that it will fit properly, and try to design with fewer than three colors in mind as a starting point as you’ll need to print a layer for each color. When using several colors, start with lighter ones and then overlap them with darker colors as you build each layer.
5. Expose your screens.
You’re now ready to start exposing your screen and get your finished product. Go to the darkroom where your screen is now dried, and lay the design you’ve printed onto transparency paper onto the screen and expose light onto it. Once exposed, you’ll need to remove the emulsion that wasn’t exposed to the light, and the easiest way to do this is with a pressure washer.
As you’re exposing your screens, you may want to use some blacked-out material and place it under the mesh of your printing screen, and then take your design and place it on the top of the mesh, followed by a sheet of glass to make a flat surface which is ideal for exposing. Also note that depending on how you’re exposing your screens, either with a light or the sun, your mileage may vary on how long it needs. Some trial and error may be needed to get the result you want. For example, with a 150-watt bulb, you may need between 45 minutes and 1 hour and a half depending on the size of your screen.
As you’re exposing the emulsion to the UV light, it will harden and attach itself to the surface you’re printing on, with any areas that are blocked remaining liquid and soluble.
The light makes the emulsion harden and bind to the fabric, so where your black image is placed, the light is blocked, and the emulsion remains water-soluble.
6. Printing the design
With the screen now exposed, you’re ready to print your design. Take the screen and lay it onto your material, be it a t-shirt, poster, or other fabric, and spread ink on the inside. You then press the ink through the screen, and then leave it to dry. This can be sped up by using an iron or a hairdryer if you’re using a textile material, and then the iron is necessary as a final step to create a seal that will be waterproof and washing machine-safe. You’ll need to iron the design on for a few minutes on each side to ensure that the design is fully sealed.
When you’re printing, try not to move the screen or anything else, as this could cause the design to smudge, and then make sure to leave it to dry before moving anything thoroughly. If you find that your ink is getting dry, try adding some water to the mix as you want to make sure it’s moist through the printing process.
When you’re done, you’ll then want to clean everything up to make sure that your equipment is in order for the next time you want to use it. You may want to soak your screen for a while, and then use a pad to clean off any excess.
