Recent poster I printed

This was a fun project even though it was the artist first try at making a poster for screenprinting. He made it all on a photocopier, enlarging and reversing bits as he went along. It's a poster for an art show if you want to check it out
June 2 at Vain Salon Gallery 2018 first ave in Seattle 5p-9p

Get Loose

So at some point I am sure you will need art to print. In my experience silkscreen printing has the best results when the art is loose. When I say loose I mean that the art does not need to be registered within millimeters.I have worked with some of the greatest poster artists around and the common thread through all of their work is this "looseness". You may have a great color design on your computer screen but if it cannot bounce around a bit on the press it is gonna look like shit as a final print. This is particularly true when you are printing flatstocksimply because the way it is printed is one color at a time. Another thing you as an artist/designer need to think about is print order. This is the order in which colors are printed. If you are working in two or more colors it is very important that you know which color is printed first and you do not lay that color on TOP of another color as it is impossible to print underneath a color that has already been printed. the way that you decide print order is what color traps the other colors, what colors lay on top of other colors and what color just sits underneath everything. You can easily test this in illustrator or photoshop by creating your art in layers and mess around with turning the layers on and off to see what effect you get. I used the term trap a bit ago and you may be wondering what I meant by that. Say you have an illustration of a girl her dress is red and her skin is beige. there is a black outline that goes around the whole figure. The point in which this outline borders the other colors that constitute this girl is your trap. My print order for this would be red, then beige, then the black outline that"traps" the other colors.I am positive that if you simply keep this in mind you will have alot of success with screenprinting.

Cornish Silkscreen Club Fundraiser

This should be fun, These guys have some
really great designs that will be for sale. If you
are in Seattle saturday May 7 you should try to
make it out and support them.
MOKSHA 4542 University way NE, Seattle Wa
SAT. MAY 7th. 9 - 12
Fourth City Reinhold and Kamui

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Getting screens

So I guess you want some actual info. Well your prints will only be as good as the gear you use. Lots of folks make the mistake in thinking it is more cost effective to stretch their own screens. This is the first step in having an absolutely miserable time with the whole process of screenprinting. I suggest you use Professional grade pre stretched screens from somebody like Dimensional Products or whoever is your local screen/sign supply company. This cuts down on the time you waste trying to stretch and restretch your screens. I have screens that I bought for $25 eight years ago that I still use regularly, which makes it a well made investment. When you do buy screens you will be asked what mesh you will want. The mesh is how porous the screen is so the more/ finer the detail the higher the mesh you want. If you are printing textiles with water based inks you should start with a 125 mesh screen for not so much detail to 355 mesh for 4-color process. If you use plastisol inks well, you can go as low as 110 mesh and up to 355 for process inks. If you plan to print with metallic inks I suggest you go with as low a mesh as possible,
The metal flakes will clog up the higher mesh screens. If You Plan on printing paper You will only want to get 355 mesh screens. When you buy screens they need to be abraded and degreased before you coatthem with your emulsion. The Print industry makes all of these nifty products to help you with this process but I have found that a bit of elbow grease and Simple Green work fine. You should buy yourself a nice stiff nylon bristled scrub brush to do the abrading and a bottle of Simple Green to act as the degreaser. First wet your screen then put a bit of the soap on it and go to work with your scrub brush. Don't be gentle 'cuz you really want to rough up the fiber of the screen mesh so that it will hold the emulsion to it. As for emulsion I have not had any problems with Ulano's QTX, Its pretty easy to use. I also suggest you get yourself a emulsion scoop to coat your screens. It's another thing that folks skip thinking they are saving money but it will save you considerable time and heartache. As for coating screens that is pretty much a technique that will come with time, be patient. Some screensupply shops do offer coating and burning of the screens you buy so unless you plan on doing alot of printing that may be the way you want to go.
ez

Got to have tough wrists

So for anybody who stumbles into this dark corner of the web My name is Damion and I am a printer. At one time I did alot of contract printing of Posters and shirts and whatnot, Now I pretty much strictly print for myself.I recently did a stint as technical adviser to the silkscreen printing club at Cornish College of Arts and I realized that maybe somebody would be interested in hearing my low budget /high quality screenprinting tips. Hand Pulled will be dedicated to discussing the finer aspects of good old fashioned serigraphy by hand regardless if it is on a piece of paper, a shirt, mirror, or whatever. I am sure You will get a big dose of design opinion as well.
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