Screen Printing

I Spent today in the print room with Suzan our technician to learn how to screen print properly. I was very excited to get my image on screen and experiment with different fabrics and techniques like devore, foil and flock, aqua span and simply pigment colour design through screen.

First of all we printed off my image onto acetate, we made sure each line was thick enough otherwise it wouldn't come through properly onto the screen.

We then turned on the machine as it takes 20minutes to warm up to expose our screens.

We then went to the printing room where Suzan explained all the different typed of meshes for the screens, for example one may have 42 threads per inch and others 61, or 71 threads per inch. This is so when you are doing specific techniques you can produce the right screen for that technique. For example the 42 tread screen would be used for thicker heavier dyes or substances, in my case texiflock and aqua span which are thick heavy glues and the less threads there are in the screen allows for the glue to pass through easily where a 71 thread screen would be more suitable for pigment and devore as these are alot thinner substances so the more tighter threads prevents it from spreading.

Suzan also showed us how to correctly mix pigment colours and gave us a sheet with the correct recipes on to follow and showed us an example of how to weigh the Magnaprint FF binder with the inks.

We then went into the dark room where the screens get coated with light sensitive emulsion called Dirasol, when there dry the screen goes into a Nat Graph Self Contained Exposure Unit along with the acetate underneath. 

once the machine is on you clamp down the lid and put a vacuum on to hold the screen in place. The acetate is in position under the screen face up so the design isn't backwards. It then gets exposed to the UV light for 20 light units which is about 1.5 seconds a light unit. Once the timer stops you remove your screen and take it to the washing area keeping it in controlled lighting all the time so it doesnt expose anything on the emulsion.

Then we washed the screen using a hose and sponge, because when the black design on the acetate blocks the light from exposing through to the screen, the emulsion stays soft and doesn't dry so when you wash it the emulsion comes away from the screen leaving your design exposed onto the screen as you can see on the image below :)

Tomorrow i will be experimenting with screen printing on different types of fabrics with different techniques which i am very excited about :) Hopefully also have my digital printed fabrics printed so i can see how the finishes are on those and maybe devore into a couple. I also want to produce another screen which is all textured moth wings and pattern so this could be a background before i print the bugs and insects on top. Hopefully i will have a very productive day!! I shall update my blog tomorrow to let you know how i get on :)