Do any of you do this, I am interested in getting started with a small kit. Nothing rediculously expensive. I just wanna make a few t-shirts with my company logo and a few with cute saying to sell on my site and at shows!!! Does anyone have any tips or pointers???
Don't be stingy with the resist. Take extra time to make the original design on the screen perfect before moving on to printing. Do test prints on card stock.
get a book on it. i have one that talks about it some, it seems like you make most of the materals yourself and the ink and other things you can buy at some craft or arts store.
a little while back i was lurkin around crafster as i like do on message boards and i found this link that seemed pretty cool. really basic, but if you just wanna play around at first, it seemed easy and cheap enough.... http://www.livejournal.com/community/craftgrrl/3674467.html good luck!
Thanks for the link,MaryJeanne. That's awesome. I have tried doing fake screenprinting using paint/fabric medium...and that method is okay but I will definitely try the method used in the link
Wow. That method is a lot easier than how I was taught all those years ago. You could "up the ante" a bit, using multiple screens and colours... instead of a frame, you could just use a watermark or "x" to centre, right?
This is what I have always done to save money on t-shirts we sold and gave away for our band. You can get screen mesh at just about any respectible art supply house or you can contact a screen print supplier (I use Texas Original Graphics, well b/c it's local), check your phone book. Next I find a heavy duty picture frame and stretch the screen mesh over the frame (much like if you where stretching a canvas). I use those flat thumb tacks to hold it down. Now for your graphic. Hop on down to your nearest & cheapest sign shop that uses a vinyl plotter (most do now-adays. Heck I'm a retired sign maker so I know) to create you graphic. Or if you need an image created or vectored, i'm really cheap. It's also wise to have what you want and vector ready (if not I can do it for you, as I said that's what I did). Have them cut it as a reverse decal (AKA Reverse Weed). meaning it will be inside a box. Any color of vinyl is fine. I use black b/c that's my preferance, but use the cheapest vinyl they have to offer. Calon II is the best cheap one IMHO, don't be sold on Oracal (it blows). Place the image on your screen (with the frame acting as a wall to keep your "ink" in). Now for your "ink", use the cheap craft acrylic from the craft dept of your fav store. It washes out of the screen and when you change the design, if you have taken good care of your screen, you can reuse it. I have always used a screen printers squeegee. The only thing else you have to do is secure a board to put your garment on. On cleaning it remember this: If you have one screen (for one color) wash it after you have compleated your screening. And leave it in the sun to dry. Somewhere the dog or kids won't damage it. I have always hung each shirt carefully after each screening (or had someone help me). I don't recomend getting into multi colors untill you are skilled enough to match up the patterns and such. If I have left out any details, I'll edit this. But that is the best way I have found to do it myself. It's sounds easy, not just because I'm an artist, because it really is easy.
