Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Silkscreening on the Cheap

For a few months, I have been toying with silkscreening. Nothing fancy - just making t-shirts and such for me and my family. I got a Speedball kit for Christmas and after a few false starts, I was printing! I wanted to do more, but screens are expensive and I worried about committing a screen to a design I'm not in love with.

So, a few weeks ago I came across this tutorial. I went and bought my cheap, sheer polyester and an embroidery hoop. In contrast to their instructions, I decided to try to use diazo on the screen instead of drawing it out by hand. I mean, what the use of something being cheaper if it takes a ton more time?

I readied the screen, burned my image in the noon sun for about 60 seconds, rinsed out the stencil and had a screen. I wasn't sure how it would print and my squeegee was too big to fit in the hoop, so I used a fake credit card (the ones that come in junk mail) to spread the ink. It worked! Hope it works for you, too!

9 comments:

Over The Top Aprons said...

This is great - I admire your ingenuity! very, very nice!!

MewPaperArts said...

Hey Wow! That's super awesome. I'll have to give that a whirl!

Margie Naylor said...

How cute! Will you teach me how to do that??

Unknown said...

YAY!!!!!!!! Miss talented!! :)
those are great!!

Marissa Buschow said...

that is very cool! I'll have to add that to my list of "things to do when I have time & ambition"... :)

chARiTy elise said...

oh wow!-- these are fantastic!! you are so clever and resourceful! (two high compliments in my book!!) i would love to try something like this!

sheilabythebeach said...

I found that tutorial too and bought the big embroidery hoop, etc. Mine is sitting in a drawer, I love the way it worked for you! Just the inspiration I needed today. I am going to try it out using underglaze on clay someday.

Shelley Huff Artist said...

can you tell me about diazo.... is that something different than glue!

Anonymous said...

don't worry about "committing" a screen - most kits come with an emulsion remover, and it's easy to reclaim a screen if you decide you don't need to use it anymore or if it doesn't produce the results you're looking for.
(if your kit doesn't come with remover, it's really inexpensive to buy, and a small bottle will work on several screens).