advanced silk screening question

so i've done ilk screens before. emulsion, squeegee, dry in dark, light table w/design on acetate, etc. Hoever, this method doesn't work with gradations of shading, it is either black or not black. I want to make my girlfriend a shirt with a really big Led Zeppelin 'Houses of the Holy' design that takes up the whole shirt. And, as you all know, it would look like crap if it was done the way i know how.

the question is: what method do i use and what supplies to i need to be able to screen print them ill fades?

any help is appreciated

half-tone

wow... ironic, i just bought a silk screening kit and was about to start a thread for tips and such. well i guess im going to hi-jack this bitch!

so explain this "photo imulsion" stuff. how the hell would i go about using this method? i just made a screen using the "screen filler" stuff but i can already see that this is going to be pretty inefficiant.

You're going to have to either make a screen zippatone style with dots that get progressively larger or smaller respectively in opposite directions, or you'll need to layer your pigment or dyes. You could also just mix the dyes right inside the screen on your border and screen it and just hope it works, but that usually screws things up. The way a silkscreen works though, there is no way you can just do one pass and have an even gradation. The closest you'll get to that is zippatone style.. which, if done right, looks good.. try layering maybe, do something up with pigments where you mix like 95% extender with your color, do the whole area, let it dry, mix up some like 85% extender/color, apply that to like 3/4 the area, etc.. although you'd definitely see lines this way..

what is this half-tone business?

i think i remember reading a post by bl4kh4m that guy pretty into the half tones and exactly what you're looking to do...

ive seen half tones work okay with photo emulsion.

what i have been tryign to find out is what ink to use. i mean, i know youre supposed to use textile ink for shirts, but that shit still doesnt come through as thick as i want it to be on the shirt, or if washes out even if ive cured the ink in heat. im looking for a specific brand or which sort of chemicals i need to look for in the ink.

i have made screens in a dark room w/ a light directly over top for a while to burn the image onto the screen, but a friend of mine swears they make a light that is very powerful or something and it flashes and burns it real quick... any truth to this, if so where can i get one?

also w/ halftones do you just create a half-tone in photoshop and put it on acetate?

Well there are different percentage films that you can get. They are like the zippatone thing that desensitized was talking about..kinda. If you are doing emulsion you can use the various percentage of tone sheets to make the fade come out right. It just blocks out the light to a certain extent equaly over the film. This would work if you want to do it all by hand.

Some one clarify if possible. My explanations are never really that great.

read this:

to make a fade you do not need a half tone screen.

1. Decide on the colors you want to use

2. place the colors, in the ordser you want them to fade along the side of your screen.

3. Distribute the inks so they meet at the center of your desired fade area.

4. Start pulling prints. It should take several tests before the ink is distrubuted and mixed to create the fade you want.

Problems: this method wastes some ink. It is

however nice at times to have slight variations of

your prints. To the variations are interesting and

give a semi one-off feel to a line of otherwise

standardized runs of prints.

the halftone issue:

Have tone screens are great but have their issues

as well. The first thing is they become hard t deal

with if you on a limited home set up. They require

at least a light table or a means of exposeing

your screen, of course Vacum sealed tables are

the most desirable.. Most home st ups are not

this advanced. However if you are using light

sensitie emulsion they are great.

What is it?:

half tone screens are a basically just a series of

lines of dots going from very small dots to largers

dots. when printed it gives the visual illusion of a

fade happeing by way of the dots getting smaller

and furhter apart, thus making the color appear

as though its gradually fading out..

there are however other considerations to be

made then.

A. dot paterns many times are printed on top of

other solid colors. So its important to know if you

inks are opaque or how they will react to or

interact with the inks colors below.

B. Super fine dot paterns can be a rel bitch to

work with. The smaller of the dots can clog and

then start to fuck the fade. Exposing them takes

more care, as well, to make sure you have to

light leaks that will make the dots look

non-unioformed.

You can also make the your own "zippatone" half

screens very easily In Illustrator or the like. then

print them on acetate, at home or a kinkos kinda

spot..

not trying to be too simple but this is a start. Cheers.

hev-

Originally posted by paint junky

i have made screens in a dark room w/ a light directly over top for a while to burn the image onto the screen, but a friend of mine swears they make a light that is very powerful or something and it flashes and burns it real quick... any truth to this, if so where can i get one?

 

yes, the higher the watt of the bulb, the quicker it burns the image on. you got to get it special, and its going to be super expensive.

You can get a bulb that will burn an emulsion screen in 11 minutes, thats about as fast as you can get unless you use special techniques to "flash" the screen, but these are normally only found in shops. The bulb your looking for is a BBA #1 or something to that effect. I dont think this bulb is worth the money, or the time it saves though. I had one before, Its only rated to last for 90 minutes before the filement burns out, and it costs around 8 bucks... www.dickblick.com has them though if you want to check into it.

I was wondering if anybody had some answers for me about ink. Speedball sucks, it creates cracks, and the colors are kinda spotty. I bought some Uni plastisol, but it wont wash out of a screen cuz its oil based and you gotta dry it in an oven. Is there anybody that knows how to successfully use this ink in a home setup? the results are professional quality and are exactly what im looking for. Or know any other good inks to try that are better than speedball?

I want to silk screen tee shirts.

For fun.

Would it be easier to get someone to do this for me.

How expensive would it be to get started.

Also where would I find quality blank teeshirts. Like high quality.

And finally this is a little more specific but I am looking to number the shirts on the tags. so having a hanes logo or some shit is sort of a problem, does anyone have any connex is the shirt manufacturing biz? where would I get shirts where I can print ONTO the tag/ do I get tags made seperately? thanks in advance.

Mr. Yuck!!!!!!

Get a SanMar account, get yourself one of their tagless shirts ( i know anvil and hanes both have some) otherwise your probly thinking about american apparel or whatever. You can get some kit which can be pretty spendy if you want a legitimate setup, like at least $800.00 Check out youtees.com if you want a decent low budget setup, or go through a shop and establish that connection. Good luck-

Okay. Ill send MR. Yuck a message as well. So If I only wanted to make say 25 or 50 shirts it would be a smarter move to get someone else to print them then? Like a silkscreening company? From what I understand most graphics would be easier to print than to silkscreen. Text being an exception.

Dude you are WAY better off focusing on design

You can find a local professional screenprinter to do the actual printing

If you just want a couple shirts holler at cafepress.com

But really, there's really no point in learning the whole complicated process of screen press, emulsion, all that, when there are so many cheap alternatives for both small run and bulk

But you can get all in one starter kits for like 250$

Yeah im looking for higher quality than cafe press though. I think I may have found a screenprinter nearbye that could help me out. Im really just stuck on a few things, like I wanted to do insignias on the lower portion of the left sleeve, and print my own logo where a tag would be. And ahve all the shirts be tagless, but its not as easy as I was hoping. Oh well, anything that isnt hard isnt worth it.

i have made a bunch of shirts, but just alot of one or two color shit, i wanna fuck with some gradients in the future here, this thread is helpful.

screen printing your own shirts is fun as hell

From the sounds of it, you'd probably get a better product if you go through a professional silkscreener.

I used to work at a silkscreening company, and if they're any good, they should be able to print any placement for you (within reason) and they should have access to an assortment of apparel wholesalers, so I bet they could order some without labels.

Shop around, see what price they'll give you. They should charge you a set-up fee, and then a certain (smaller) price per print.

The price will be less than buying a whole setup, and the product will be nicer than if you started teaching yourself now.

Yeah thats probably what im going to do. I want to make like 25 shirts 5 of 5 designs.

doing color fades and gradients are easy

Just put 2 lines of ink, one above the other

The bottom line will ink first, and fade to the top color... You have to get use to how it fades though to get the ink ammounts right

You will probably have to practice a little, but once you get down it's easy

youll need to read up on the different mesh counts as well. having the art ready and on the film or vellum is one thing, keeping it in the screen when you wash out is another.

http://www.bgconcepts.com/

Nuff said.

youll need to read up on the different mesh counts as well. having the art ready and on the film or vellum is one thing, keeping it in the screen when you wash out is another.

As long as you rinse screens before the ink dries losing the vellum isn't a problem

There's also a lot of soy based cleaners

As long as you rinse screens before the ink dries losing the vellum isn't a problem

There's also a lot of soy based cleaners

the funk you talkin about? the vellum or film comes off the screen before you washout, if you didnt remove it, then you would ruin it.

we keep our art just incase we have a repeat customer.

to make a halftone in Photoshop.

IMAGE >

MODE>

GREYSCALE

IMAGE >

MODE>

BITMAP

Set it to a halftone screen (circle) diamonds and cross hatching available

set it to the right amount of DPI/LPI

Match your screen mesh with the halftone LPI

You should always have more LPI on the screen than on the image. so no dots "fall out"

print your films, shoot your screen.

Hope i have been a help.

Check my shit out @ http://www.myspace.com/opmdsn.

I print for people and do some of my own work on the side.

<3 screen printing :D any questions jsut ask.

*first post after years of lurking :P