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Screenprinting is Fun, Fashionable, and a Great Way to Spend an Afternoon

Thanks to DIY culture, the weekend project is back, and graphic artists are creating fantastic handmade work all over the place. Luckily, if we want to be ultra-hip creative artists and make our own graphic print t-shirts, we don’t have to figure it out all by ourselves.

DIY gurus Bre Pettis (Make magazine) and Matt Stinchcomb (etsy.com) are here to give us the lowdown on screenprinting, a long-time favorite project of rock bands and graphic design fans the world over.

Screenprinting is a very hands-on, low tech project, but advances in digital art have made it easier. The first thing you need is your image, and this is where the computer comes in. Draw your image, scan it into the computer, and get a good solid color on it using Photoshop--or find an image online (as long as you’re not stepping on any legal toes in doing so).

The main thing is to find an image that will work well as a stencil, which is essentially how you will use it. Once you’re satisfied, print out the image on a transparency. And that’s the end of high tech in this project.

Get yourself some 110 nylon mesh, a frame, screen printing emulsion, and ink from your local art supply shop.

1. Build your screen, if necessary, and find your workspace.

2. Make sure you can block out excess light, and apply the emulsion to your screen as shown by Matt.

3. Let your emulsion dry, then get your transparency out and burn the image into the emulsion. You can do this with a light box like the one Matt built, or you can expose the emulsion to the sun for twenty to forty minutes, depending on the weather. Don’t forget to orient your transparency correctly depending on the light source.

4. After the emulsion is burned, you can rinse your screen off and start printing. The most satisfying part of this project is that, once you’ve created your silkscreen, you can print like crazy!

5. And then you can add electronic doo-dads, embroidery, sewn-on collars, buttons … you name it. But that’s really another project, maybe for another weekend.

Check out our t-shirt designs in the CR8Tees section of this website, and let us know what you think.

If you are interested in designing t-shirts for CR8MAG, send a low-resolution jpeg sample of your design to our CR8Team email. Qualified designers will hear from us if we like their style. And remember: we appreciate everything you send us!