photo.emulsion.screenprinting

 okay gang!  here is my experience with photo emulsion screenprinting.  even though it is much more time consuming, it is so far, my favorite screenprinting technique!

draw an image with black marker - make sure the lines are thick and dark.  take a picture and get it onto your computer where you can darken the image and then print it out on a transparency or have it copied on a transparency film at the copy shop.



i purchased Speedball's Photo Emulsion Screenprinting Kit. I found sheer, voile at my local fabric store, then used embroidery hoops for the frame.  Make sure your voile is taut in the frame.



Place 3-4 pushpins on the outside of the frame for drying purposes.




Mix your emulsion according to the directions by a sink with rubber gloves.  
Have a thick piece of cardboard ready to scrape your screen with.



Pour the mixed emulsion onto the outside of the screen first.  
Just enough to cover what you want to cover.  Scrape it with your cardboard.  
Remove the excess emulsion by scraping it back into the bottle.



Flip it over and scrape the inside of the frame (inkwell side).  
If there is nothing there to scrape, add a little dab of emulsion.
Continue scraping both sides and removing the excess until there is a thin, even coating on both sides.  Set aside to dry in a dark room, closet, or cabinet.  I put this in my bathroom with a cool fan.  
It dried pretty quickly.  Keep this in the dark room until you have your lightbox set up.




Now I am lucky enough to have a photography light box handy - but you can use the bright mid-day sunshine, or a 150-300 watt lightbulb with an aluminum pie pan.  See some examples 
HERE and HERE.  You may have to do a few trial and error prints.  But don't give up!  It took me a few days to figure out my lighting and the exposure timing.



I used our photography lightbox which has about 300 watts shining down about 8-12 inches above my screen.  (about the height of soupcans).  Now once your light source is set up - whether outside mid-day sunshine or a 200 watt bulb on your kitchen table - take a large book - place a piece of black construction paper or similar on top of it.  If you can find a piece of glass that will fit inside the inkwell side of your frame - that his absolutely best!  (The picture below is not best for fine lines - since the screen was not absolutely pressed between the black paper and the glass tightly.)  

In the darkened room, place the dried screen onto the black paper (inkwell side up - pushpin-side down)  remove the pushpins.  Place your transparency onto the screen then place the glass on top of the transparency.  It is okay if the glass is smaller than the transparency - add clear tape to the edges if they are curling upward.  The black lines are what needs to block out the light.  So the smoother the "sandwich" the better.  Then place a dark cloth on top of all this - while you transport it to your light source.  When you're in position - remove the cloth and expose your image.  For my lightsource, I exposed the image for about 6 minutes - if there were fine lines.  You can watch the green turn a blueish gray and that is a good sign it is ready too.




The image should still be green when you remove it from the light source and rinse it in the sink.  The rinsing will take about 5-10  minutes.  Have patience!  You can also use an acrylic scrub brush to lightly scrape the green emulsion away after some rinsing time. 




check your image against a window and see how it looks!  :D




after the screens are dry - get the ink and screen away!  :D  it is so addicting!  i made these images below for my climbing shop - rokrok.etsy.com - but i need to stop playing with screenprinting so i can finish sewing them up!  :D





two of my chalkbags completed.


the next post, i have a fabulous idea to share involving screenprinting.  if you take the plunge and make some photo emulsion screenprints - let me know how it goes!  xo


Comments

  1. Nice post!!Thanks for sharing it with us..Few days ago I found a site whose print Screen photo-resist has proven to be the best photo emulsion for screen printing on any kind of fabric.

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