screenprinting
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- jonnyquest
i decided to take a screenprinting class so i could express myself creatively because work is a drag...
today was the third class meeting and everytime i come home i am just drained. taping screens, emulsyfying them, cleaning and blowing them out after your done with one color...
now i know why everyone does editioned giclees... screenprinting can be a bitch... i guess if it was easy everyone would be doing it...
It's a large format class which probably tends to make it a bit more difficult than normal...
i wouldn't be whining if they were t-shirt sized scrims...
in the end the suffering will be worth it.
any advice from practioners of the craft would be greatly appreciated...
- Seff0
i did a 4 color print last night.
took about an hour for each color i layed downthe easiest way i have found is:
I know a t-shirt printer that will clean the old, prep and expose the new for $12.50 a screen.
cant beat it.
beats doing all that mickyficky prep
- Seff0
i guess the point of that post is
get at least 3-4 screens and expose them all when you are ready to print. then just print and wash the screen and move on to the next color
by the time you print and wash the dirty screen and lignup the new new one, the ink you just layed down is dry and you are ready to go again..
takes about an hour a piece
- skelly0
the whole process of screenprinting is my favorite thing ever. i enjoy it more than any other medium.
- mrdobolina0
yo seff git on IM.
- BUISNESS0
I also take screenprinting class on Weds. 6-10pm, which is tough if you're not int he right frame of mind for it all. I feel your pains, but the things that come of it can be spectacular. Pure experimental. EMBRACE IT, DRINK RED BULL, YEE HARR
- jonnyquest0
I am just having the typical beginner probs...
uneven emulsion spreads on my larger scrims... mixing ink to the right consistency...
planning out how many colors you actually want is kind of tricky also...
i have pretty good 4-8color offset background but screen printing is is a whole new ballgame... being pigment based the inks can overprint and multiply over each other to some degree but they are not semi-transparent like CMYK inks so you don't have that additive process creating your image like a 4-color offset press.
so planning your colors takes some time... in addition you never know how the colors will come out until you do your ink tests and pull them through your screen...
- Seff0
mess around with some transparent base inks, makes purposeful overprints look sweet and plus you can achieve secondary colors when you plan on it..
- jonnyquest0
our first project is a 12x 18" edition of 10 posters in which we have to use two colors to make a 3 color poster the third color being an overprint/multiply mix of the first two colors... the instructor wants a "true edition" set also in which all 10 posters are identical to each other...
ooof.
i'll never look at screenprints in the same light again...
editioned giclees are a joke compared to manually having to do it.
- Seff0
your professor sounds like a hard ass..
props to him
- jonnyquest0
she's actually really laid back but she does set high standards on the actual assignments... so i give her props on that... but she will totally let us burn a few t-shirt screens in between our actual poster assignments... i am trying to figure out how to do some skateboards the only thing i can figure is the screen presses tight against the deck to form against the concaves then they use an auto body paint sprayer to blast the ink through the screen because most decks now have crazy concaves unlike mid 80's decks which were flat as hell.
- jonnyquest0
i am talking true tip to tail coverage...
i figure you need a fairly loose screen but getting a squegee to go the wholle distance seems impossible...
- Seff0
email me your address
i'll send you what i printed last night. going to do a mass mailing on monday. & maybe you will send over something you are printing. id love to see it
- emphor0
i did screenprinting for 12 years as a job. never did tee's (no money in it for us), but did get to do my own stickers after hours.
i did 4 years of graphics at uni during all those years and was lucky to have a head start on pms colours printing process' etc.
wouldn't go back to it (now doing graphics full-time), but was a pretty cool (albeit stinky) job.
- Crouwel0
i am watching a Warhol documentary a friend of mine bought for me in Pittsburgh.
there's some serious silkscreening to enjoy.
good times.
- spifflink0
so if there is no classes i can take around where i live, what would be the best way to learn it? also, where can i get some good equipment? i am looking to do posters and such. thanks
- mrdobolina0
A few forum links:
http://www.gigposters.com/forums…
http://www.skullandbonesskateboa…
I order most of my equipment from these peeps:
- restlessdesign0
get an aluminum retensionable screen. it will cost you a bit more up front, but they're easier to stretch and will never break on you (unless you let it rust like a dumbass)
- spifflink0
where do you get the films printed at though? i have a 13x19 printer, but what if i wanted to go bigger than that?
- mrdobolina0
gang up films, tape them together. Getting super-oversized film positives is expensive as hell.
If your design is simple enough, use vellum. It may be cheaper and you could have it printed out of the plotter at kinko's possibly.
I would just tape positives together though and overlap them. If the seam where the two positives overlap exposes a line on your screen, use tape or blockout to plug them holes.
good luck spifflink.
- restlessdesign0
Yeah as long as you're not doing something crazy like half-tones (which I doubt since you're just starting out), just piece together your films with tape. And you don't need to go anyplace special for printing the positives. Just get some standard laser printer transparencies and print them out at work/school/kinko's
Or you can buy tranparencies made especially for inkjet printers, but they tend to cost more.