There are a limited number of artistic activities around today that are as fun, and at the same time as challenging, as screen printing / silk screening. Screen printing requires a screen secured in either an aluminum or wooden frame, a screen printing press, a stencil, and inks in order to print your image onto your desired medium. Most screen printing set ups cost thousands of dollars for multi-arm presses and all of the required chemicals and inks, but there are also several ways to screen print on the cheap from your home.

When it comes to screen printing, there are a few basic materials that are necessary to begin printing. First, there are the screens. A screen consists of a fabric mesh that is stretched out on a wooden or aluminum frame, and the tighter the mesh is stretched, the better details will show up on the print. To burn your image for printing onto the mesh, you will need a stencil made of film positive or a transparent material such as the transparencies used on school projectors, a container of emulsion fluid, and a container of sensitizer fluid. Next up you will need a piece of glass that will fit inside the frame to cover the mesh, a piece of dark cloth (preferably black as you need to block out all light), and a 250 watt photo bulb lamp. Gloves, a water supply such as a garden hose with spray nozzle or a sink, gloves, an art squeegee and the actual screen printing ink are all that is left to get you on your way to printing your own custom apparel.

Now, when it comes to the stencils, there is a huge difference between what could be a great design and what could be a terrible design when printed. Images with large areas of contrast, such as vector images, show up really well when printed, where as designs with a lot of detail that is all over the place make it harder to print. Also remember that the more complex the image and the more colorful it is makes it more expensive and harder to print said design.

So once you have your design planned out, now it comes down to actually making the screen to print. First thing you are going to want to do is make sure the screen is securely fashioned to the frame. If you purchased a pre-made screen and this is your first time using it, you shouldn’t have any problems with this. If you are more of a DIY person and made your own screen, make sure the screen is stretched tight and securely fastened to the frame. Print out your design to make your stencil. Now it’s time to burn the stencil to the screen. You are going to want to mix the emulsion and sensitizer together, and then applying the mixture to both sides of your screen in a dark room, as the emulsion is extremely sensitive to light. Take your art squeegee and even out the emulsion so that it is distributed evenly. Leave the emulsion covered screen in a dark room or box for about 2 hours and the emulsion should dry without hardening (making it much harder to clean the screen out). After the emulsion has dried on the screen, place the screen onto a dark / black cloth, and then place the stencil onto the frame and the glass on top of the stencil on the screen. What you are going to want to do now is expose only one side of the screen to your 250 watt photo bulb light source, which will allow the emulsion to dry in about fifteen to twenty minutes. Once the emulsion has successfully dried, remove the glass / stencil and rinse off the emulsion using your water source. After you have allowed the screen to dry, you are good to start using it to print. It is highly recommended to use a screen printing press, which you can build yourself if you are more DIY inclined, or you can buy a single press for cheap at a local arts store such as Michaels. Secure the screen to the press, or if you are not using a press then place the screen onto whatever medium you are wishing to print. Pour a good amount of ink onto the screen, and use your squeegee to evenly distribute the ink throughout the screen while applying a good amount of pressure. At first you will see spots that you missed and you will have to reapply more ink, but don’t worry – practice makes perfect in the screen printing game and you will eventually find a good way to apply the inks.

When you are done, lift the screen and you are all done. Your custom apparel is done. Depending on the types of ink you used, you may have to wait a bit of time before the ink dries. Put the freshly printed shirts on a flat counter top where no one or anything will hit them and allow them to dry. When you are done with all your printing, you can wash out the screen / frame and repeat the steps to reuse them as often as you would like!

Gene has been screen printing for over 10 years, and runs his very own South Florida screen printing shop for the past 7 years.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gene_Parmesan

http://EzineArticles.com/?A-Beginners-Guide-to-Screen-Printing&id=4925608

Screen printing is also a stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. It is also known as silkscreen, seriography, and serigraph.

Screen printing is an ancient printing technique that has been in fashion in all the time eras. In earlier times, printing was done by a woven mesh that supported an ink-blocking stencil. With the advancement in industrial technology, the general methods of printing have been modified but the basic concept remains the same.

According to the scriptures of written history, this technique has foundation roots in China during the Song dynasty (960-1279 CE). In the later times, this technique was also adopted by the Asian countries that brought innovations in it by combining it with block printing and paints. On the other hand, these printing trends weren’t much in use in Western Europe where it was introduced in late 1700′s and was scantly used for just printing wall papers or the other fabrics.

With the passage of time this field got sufficiently established and by 1910 people started experimenting to further refine the technique. The use of photo-reactive chemicals became common. These were experimented by utilizing actinic light and also the cross linking and hardening properties of sodium, potassium and ammonium bicarbonate chemicals in combination with certain gelatin compounds. The use of chromic acid salt sensitized emulsions for manufacturing the photo-reactive stencils was introduced by Charles Peter, Edward Owens and Roy Beck. These developments revolutionized the printing industry and with theses advancements later photo-imaged stencils paved way in the industry.

Later on in 1928, Joseph Ulano established he chemical supplier industry known as Ulano. He brought forward the method of applying a polish/gloss soluble stencil material to a removable base and this stencil was cut in various shapes and designs. In this way the printed areas were removed and the remaining material was left sticking to mesh. This helped in creating a sharp edged screen stencil which has numerous benefits in printing industry.

In the beginning screen printing was used only for industrial purposes but later on many artists adopted it as a medium of exhibiting their creative talent. According to the Printer’s National Environmental Assistance Center screen-printing is definitely the most multipurpose and versatile form of all the printing techniques.

Now coming out of the history pages to the present times, the printing process is certainly much altered. Now in the printing technique the screen is made up of delicately woven fabric mesh which is fixed on a frame of wood or aluminum. The mesh is made up of any hard metal like steel or else polyester or nylon. For framing the motive, the areas of screen which are not to be printed are blocked off completely with any non porous material. In this way the negative of the motive is formed and the impression of the design is printed on the cloth.

The screen is fixed on the top of the fabric or cloth to be printed. An ink fill bar commonly known as the flood bar is used to inject ink in the open porous spaces of the stencil. The process is initiated form the fill bar at the back of the screen just behind the ink storage. The screen is lifted and by pulling the fill bar to the front of the screen the mesh holes are filled with ink. The mesh is then placed on the fabric or cloth with a rubber blade. The ink is pumped on the substrate by pushing the rubber blade at the back of the screen. The ink is squeezed on the cloth in controlled manner keeping the amount of pumped ink in accordance with the thickness of mesh. As the rubber blade is pulled towards the back of the substrate the mesh snaps off the cloth leaving a fine print on it.

Many companies use screen printing as a tool of marketing their products by getting their logos and promos printed on t- shirts. Screen printing can also be done on electronic and medical devices as well. This industry has a bright future and its use for marketing or simply getting exclusive unique dress range is expanding day by day.

Zain-Ul-Abideen is a creative writer, writes both professionally and for pleasure. Professionally, Zain-Ul-Abideen writes articles for an internet marketing company and although he is often restricted by topic, his writing still maintains his own unique style. He has found the discipline involved with this work to be a great writing exercise and believes it enhances and improves the rest of his writing. Zain-Ul-Abideen’s articles at Diffrent Articles directory are of a much more personal nature, where he feels he can express his views and interests in the world around him

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Zain-Ul-Abideen_Malik

http://EzineArticles.com/?Screen-Printing-History&id=5079024