Screenprint Zine

http://we.riseup.net/diy/screen-printing

SUPER-LOW-TECH

SCREEN PRINTING

A DIY GUIDE

Screen printing is a relatively easy way to reproduce designsmultiple times onto t-shirts and patches, etc. The conventionalmethod usually involves printing digital images ontotransparencies which are transfered onto a 'silk screen' coveredin a photo sensitive chemical in a light unit. However, there areolder low-tech approaches which allow you to produce printswithout all the expensive kit and making use of mostly found orrecycled materials. This zine will teach you all you need to knowto get started.

Super-Low-Tech Screen-Printing

Contents:

1 - Introduction

2 - Essential Equipment

The screenMaking a frameThe Mesh (Silk)Fixing mesh to screenSqueegeesOther Equipment

5 - The Artwork

Getting 'Screen Ready'7- Transfering to screen

Positive or NegativeBlocking out

8 - The Printing Process

Ink & SubstrateFlood and strokeFancy Stuff

10 - Finishing up

Washing Up!Drying / CuringUseful Jargon

About this zine

This is the print version of an online guide bythe same name. It was produced entirely usingopen-source software (Scribus and Inkscape).

Copyleft

Both the online and print versions areprovided under creative commons license. Youare free to reproduce, copy, modify or utilisethe document or any part of the document aslong as it is not for profit making purposes.Any derivative work should retain this license.

Online version

The online version is public wiki page oncrabgrass were you can leave comments anddownload the PDF to print and the Scribus fileused to layout the zine. Find it athttps://we.riseup.net/diy/screen-printing

Weblinks

Since webpages move or vanish we've avoidedputting links in the zine. Visit the onlineversion for links to suppliers of pre-madescreens, embroidery hoops, squeegees andpaint etc. as well as links to other guides tomaking screens or screen-printing generally.

Translations

You may find French, Spanish or Germantranslations of this via the online version. Ifyou would like to offer or help withtranslations then please get in touch.

Credits

Text by Ben and Laura. Zine layout by Ben andViolette. Illustrations by Violette.

1 http://we.riseup.net/diy/screen-printing

Introduction

We first started messing about withlow-tech screen-printing at the climatecamps in Bonn and La Harve. At the NoBorder camp in Brussels later the sameyear we found ourselves doing aworkshop. The technique wasattractive because it enabled us toproduce t'shirts and patches etc. forcampaigns/action without needing anyequipement or spending much money.

We knocked-up frames usingeverything from pallet-wood planks andcut timber, to plywood batons andchipboard. For mesh we utilised fabricfrom a womens blouse, a scarf andsheer curtains. We variously stapled,gaffer-taped, nailed and glued bothframes and mesh as well asexperimenting with different ways ofcreating the artwork. Over time we'velearned from mistakes and honed ourmethods.

Although nothing we‛ve been doing isnew, most people these days wouldn'tthink to use these methods so wethought it would be good to promotethis cheap and accessible approach byproducing a guide.

Pros & Cons of this technique

+ More spontaneous and accessble+ More DIY, authentic and creative+ More recycled and sustainable+ Requires less equipiment/chemicals+ Very cheap apart from the paint- Less reliable and predictable- Less flexible in terms of artwork- Labour intensive putting artwork on screen- Can‛t just print off digital imagery- Can‛t reuse screens

Why Use The Low-tech Approach:

You need something printed today.You just want a dozen or so t‛shirts, armbands, orpatches.You prefer not to spend much money on this.You don‛t have a studio and want to do thiswhere-ever and when-ever you like and need.You don‛t have access to all the kit required forphoto exposure.You don‛t expect this to become your job or aprimary hobby.

When To Opt For Photo Exposure:

You already have access to equipment/chemicals.You want intricate artwork or lots of small words.You want to use digital imagery.You need separations for multicolour design.You want hundreds of t‛shirts / might sell them.

Some readers might find the following conversions handyCurrency: £1 ~ €1.2 ~ $1.5 (at time of writting)

Measurements: 1 inch / 1" = 2.5cm / 25mm

2Super-Low-Tech Screen-Printing

Essential Equipment

The Screen

Ready-made screens can cost as littleas £15 (for a small one ~10" square).If you planned to use photo emulsionyou'd be able to reuse the screen fordifferent artwork by applying anotherchemical to remove the dried emulsion.This is not practical when using thelow-tech approach but fortunately it iseasy to make your own screens withminimal materials and tools.Making a frame

You will need four pieces of suitablesized wood to form the frame(depending on your needs, about 15" isgood size) . The best joins requireaccurately cutting notches or 45°angles. Don't worry though, it's finejust butting the pieces together at 90°.If your wood is fairly thin then youcould use eight pieces to create twoidentical frames, then fix one on top ofthe other with the butted corner joinsoffset. Use nails, screws, staples orglue to fix it together.

There is an even easier way to makea frame but it requires a drill and jigsaw. Take a piece of 3/4inch plywood,chip or particle board (easily found inskips). Cut it down to be about 4 inchslarger in each dimension than thescreen size you desire. Drill holes about2 inches from two of the cornersdiagonally opposite each other (thehole needs to be larger than yourjigsaw blade). Now cut in two directionsfrom each hole, parallel with the edgesand maintaining about 2 inch clearance.When done, the bit in the centreshould fall out leaving you with a onepiece frame.

You could take a short cut by using an old woodenpicture frame with the glass and back removed.You might also like to try using large embroideryhoops which are cheap to get online or in charityshops/car boot sales etc. Being round bringsadditional challenges but they offer somepotential advantages too being light weight andeasy to travel with.


The Mesh (Silk)

The proper screen printing fabric(not actually silk these days) is fairlyexpensive. You can however buy enoughfor perhaps six A4 screens for ~£10off ebay. Or you could save your moneyfor paints and make do with what youcan find.

White or lightly coloured is best soyou can easily draw on it. It needs to besheer so when you hold it up to thelight you can see the grid formed bythe fibres and the little squares ofnothingness in between. The properstuff generally has 110 threads perinch, thats about 4 per mm but if youfind fabric with 2 or 3 holes per mmthen that will be fine. The best stuffI‛ve found has been a fabric used forsheer curtains. As far as I can tell it‛sprobably a polyester known as ‘Chiffon‛or ‘Organza‛. It‛s cheap to buy if youfelt inclined to do so, perhaps £2 permeter – at least a third of the price ofthe proper stuff.Apparently you can also use old nylonstockings/tights but due to their elasticitythey‛d work best with small frames, perhaps theembroidery hoop frames.If you wet the fabric before you stretch it ontothe frame, it will shrink a bit when it dries andend up even more taut. Ideally you should washthe material in hot water before use anyway toremove existing residues of detergent or fabricconditioner which might cause problems later on.

Fixing Mesh to Frame

Cut the mesh so it‛s a least 2" biggerall round than the frame. You want it astaut as possible without tearing it andevenly taut in all directions. Pin orstaple down the centre of one side andthen pull tight and do the opposite side.Now work towards the corners an inchor two at a time, doing the oppositeeach time. Once you have two sides,repeat the process with the other two.

Your screen will last longer if youseal the frame with polyurethanevarnish or wood glue. At the very least,wrap the frame in gaffer or evenmasking tape.Recently, after running out of staples, we useddouble sided sticky tape to hold and tension themesh and then squirted wood glue between theframe and fabric to provide a more permanentbond. Glue can be used by itself, but it must beallowed to dry between tensioning alternatesides.


Squeegees

The squeegee is the tool used topress ink through the stencil produceon the screen. They have a rubberblade with a wooden or plastic handleand should be an inch or two shorterthan the width of the screen they willbe used with.

Proper screen-printing squeegeesstart at about£12/€15 (Speedball

23cm) and even the rubber itself issomething stupid like £1 per inch!Apparently you can use tile grout squeegeeswhich cost about £3/€4 for 30cm. We've not yettried one but they look promising. You wouldprobably find that they would work better withthe rubber cut in two along thelength as they are very wide(and you get to make a secondsqueegee with the bit you cutoff).

You will need:

Thin wood or plastic stripsRubber stripsStaple gun or small nails

We made our own squeegees afterbeing lucky enough to find some stripsof fairly thick rubber. We sandwichedthe rubber between two piece of thinwood using a staple gun to hold ittogether then wrapped the handle ingaffer tape. They work pretty well andcan be made specifically to fit the sizeof the screens you use.

There doesn't seem to be muchonline describing making squeegees outof easily found materials. However, wedid find one page which recommendedwrapping a piece of inner tube or thinrubber around a stiff strip of thinmetal sandwiched between two piecesof wood.

Other useful equipment

You can start printing with little more than a screen and squeegee but otherstuff would be useful too. For example, overalls or an apron, plus rags and oldnewspaper, will help keep paint from getting on things it should not. Sisorsenable you to cut up material for patches and trim them after printing. Ratherthan using the kitchen table, it's good to have a flat board (known in the tradeas a platen) on which to place the things you are printing. It's also handy tohave a rack or 'washing line' ready nearby on which to drape each item afterprinting, otherwise you'll soon cover every available surface. Having a blowheater (or hair dryer) speeds up drying screens and prints. Finally, an iron orheat press is needed if you want your prints made colourfast.


The Artwork

The low-tech approach lends itselfbest to fairly simply and bold designs.You can still get fairly intricate if youhave plenty of patience but things withlots of detail or small writing will bepretty tricky and probably best doneusing photo emulsion. Basically, don‛ttry to be too ambitious!You will need:

An idea, pencils. paperWood glue and/or acrylic paintA small fine paint brush

Getting 'Screen Ready'

Screen printing requires mono-toneartwork. Either ink is printed or it isnot, there are no in-between tones, nogreyscale. You need black and whiteline drawings. If you really wantshading then it has to be done withlines, cross hatching or dithering withdots and you might want to reconsiderusing this low-tech approach.If you were working with digital images thingswould be easy. Applications like Gimp orPhotoshop have filters to convert colour orgreyscale images into a mono-tone line drawingsor half-tone filters which convert the wholeimage into a matrix of different size dots.

FOR LACK&WHITEB B


Positive or negative

Screen-print involves creating astencil and what is printed will be thenegative of what you put on the screen.You will be painting (or block out) theparts of the design which you don'twant printed. So before you go anyfurther you need to consider whicharts of the artwork should be paintedonto the screen and what should be leftas open space.

For example, if you wanted toproduce a smilie with two eyes and amouth inside a circle, you could eitherpaint the eyes, mouth and outline ofthe circle, or you could carefully avoidthe eyes and mouth while painting both

outside and inside the circle but notthe outline (ie. the negative). Mostlyyou‛d want to produce a negative butsometimes it is easier to do all or someof the design as a positive. Thinkcarefully about what this means andperhaps modify the artwork so thatsome bits can be done as positive ifneed be. With our example, you couldmake things easier by using a circlesolid instead of an outline. This wouldgive you the options of either paintingthe eyes, mouth and everything outsideof the circle or just painting the insideof the circle while avoiding the eyesand mouth.


Transferring to screen

You start by drawing the design ontothe mesh with a soft lead pencil or feltpen. This can be done either freehandor traced.

If need be, you can even tracedirectly off a computer monitor. Scalethe image exactly to the size you needthen place the screen over the displayand start tracing. Be careful not topress too hard or mark the display withpermanent ink! If your computermonitor is smaller than the image sizeto desire, don‛t worry, just zoom to thesize you need and trace in stages to getthe full image.

Blocking Out

Use a fine brush to apply eitherwood glue (not clear setting) or acrylicpaint (any colour) to the negative partsof the artwork. Work on one area at atime to reduce the chance of smudgingyour work. If you make a mistake, use adamp cotton bud to wipe awayunwanted paint/glue.

It is best to paint both sides of themesh so that it is fully sandwiched bypaint. Hold the screen up to a light tocheck for unintentional open space orpinholes as you work. When complete,allow to dry (ideally somewhere hot)and then it is ready for printing.


The Printing Process

You will need:

Something to print onInk (Acrylic Paint or Fabric paint)Squeegee and/or paint brushAccess to running water

Ink & Substrate

The thing you want to print on isknown as the substrate, eg. t‛shirts orscraps of fabric for patches. If youwant t'shirts, save money and avoidbuying new sweatshop labour industrialcotton by hunting down all the blankt'shirts you can find in charity shops,free shops and clothes recycling bins(the variety of sizes, styles and coloursmay also be advantageous). For patchesyou can often get cheap remnants infabric shops (<£1 per meter) or justcut up old shirts, trousers etc.

Some fabric takes print better thanothers, eg. cotton t‛shirts good, woollyjumpers bad.

Special ink can be purchased forscreen printing but for those on a lowbudget ordinary acrylic is fine andfairly cheap (eg. £8 for 500ml). Youneed to think carefully about whatcolours to use. High contrast worksbest. eg. black ink on white is reallyeasy (likewise, black on yellow).However, black or dark fabrics mayshow through when printing with whiteink (which is often cheapest).You can buy something called ‘screen printingmedium‛ which is a retarder for acrylic paint sothat it dries slower to prevent clogging.These printing methods also works for paper (andyou can use cheap poster paint instead ofacrylic). All the posters for the Brussels NoBorder camp were printed by hand. We've alsosuccessfully printed onto rolls of sticky backedtransparent plastic to make window stickers.


Flood and Stroke

On a nice flat stable surface, spreadout your substrate so there are nocreases then place the screen whereyou want to print. It‛s usually a goodidea to put some scrap paper under thematerial (or inside if printing on at‛shirt etc). Now you want to load thescreen with ink by first placing a beadof ink across the entire width of theimage about 1cm from the back of thescreen. Holding the squeegee withboth hands (and holding it at a 60degree angle) you will make a floodstroke by pull the ribbon of inktowards you without applying anydownward pressure. Returning thesqueegee to the back of the screen youwill make the print stroke in the samefashion, only this time you should applydownward pressure. Strictly speakingthere should be just one print strokebut we generally find we need two oreven three.

Multi-coloured printing

There is nothing to stop you usingmore than one colour at a time. You cancreate gradients by blending two ormore colours when placing the bead ofink before the flood stroke.Alternatively, instead of a conventionalflood stroke, use a brush to gentlyapply different colour inks directly tothe parts of the stencil you want them,then continue to the print stroke.

Another option is overprinting. Thisinvolves printing again with anothercolour, perhaps slightly offset tocreate a shadow or 3D like effect (thisis a good way to recover from havingprinted something poorly).Alternatively you could use of just partof the stencil when overprinting or usea completely different screen!It is handy to have a few different sizedsqueegees, brushes and mixing bowls whenworking with more than one colour. Some quickmethod of drying screens will also help.


Finishing up

Do the washing-up!

You must not let the ink dry ontoyour screen! Acrylic paints can dryreally fast in warm weather and youmight only manage half a dozen printbefore it starts to clog. In winterwe‛ve knocked out over 200 printswithout needing to wash the frame.Don‛t take risks, if it dries then yourscreen is ruined! Wash the paint offbefore it clogs using cold water,preferable a high pressure jet. Hold afinger over the end of the tap or hoseand expect to get wet. Shake it drybefore continuing - or better still, usea blow heater or hair dryer.Don't forget to clean all the ink off yoursqueegee and brushes etc.Drying & Curing

Dry is not the same as cured. If youwant your t'shirts/patches to survive avisit to the laundrette then you mustapply heat to cure the ink otherwise itmay wash out.

Place a plain sheet of paper over theimage and then use an iron (hottestsetting, no steam) for 3 to 5 minutes.Yes, it will take a really long time to doproperly if you have printed loads.A commercial heat press or flash cure unit isexpensive. You could try a trouser press or otherheating methods if you are careful (we triedputting patches in a preheated oven!).

Jargon Buster

Artwork: Common term for an image or text to be used

for printing although not necessari ly ready to transfer

to screen. Screen Art refers to artwork that is already

set up for the screen printing process.

Bleeding: Migration of ink outside of intended printing

area, perhaps due to too many print strokes or watery

ink.

Blockout: Both the process and substance used to

cover open areas of mesh in order to form a stenci l

resisting the flow of ink.

Clogging (or Plugging): Ink drying on the stenci l

unintentional ly thus preventing further ink flow through

the stenci l . Colourfast: The abi l i ty of dyed fabric or print

to retain its colours over repeated washings.

Colour Separation: Creation of seperate images for

each colour in a design which can then be printed in

sequence to reproduce the original .

Emulsion (or photo emulsion): Light sensitive chemical

which usual ly comes as two parts (emulsion and

sensitizer) to be mixed before use. I t goes hard when

exposed to l ight and can no longer be washed out with

water.

Mesh Count (or T count): Number of threads in one

square inch of screen fabric, measured in both

directions. The higher the number, the smal ler the

openings.

Opacity: An ink’s abi l i ty to cover the underlying color of

the substrate.

Open Area: The area of a stenci l that the ink passes

through.

Pinholes: Tiny unwanted open spaces on the screen.

Registration: The process of l ining up the images for

overprinting.

Serigraphy: The technical term for screen printing or

si lk screen printing.

Stenci l : The portion of the screen containing open areas

and blockout forming the image to be printed.

Documents

Screenprint Zine