Silk screening allows you to transfer an image onto fabric or another medium. Silk-screen inks are quite permanent, making this a good option if you want to sell your own T-shirt, tote bag or journal designs. You can silk screen at home with only a few materials, most of which are easily accessible. Start with simple designs for your screen and work toward more elaborate and complex designs for your do-it-yourself silk screening.
The Right Materials
In order to silk screen, you will need to burn screens. You can purchase affordable and reusable framed screens for this purpose at your local home improvement center. Choose a mesh from 110 to 160 count for fabric and somewhat higher if you will be silk screening paper. Burning the screen requires a transparency of your design made at your local copy shop, photo emulsion, a squeegee and an inexpensive, but quite bright light. You might also opt to cut stencils from thin plastic and use an adhesive to attach the stencil quite securely to a screen.
Burning a Screen
Coat your screen thoroughly with photo emulsion using a squeegee and allow this to dry completely. The photo emulsion must dry in the dark, so use a dark closet, bathroom or even a box placed over the screen to make sure that it is not exposed to light. Once the emulsion is dry, place your transparency onto the screen and secure it with Scotch tape. Set the screen under your bright light source for 45 to 60 minutes, and then rinse thoroughly with lukewarm water (see references below).
Printing
Once you have a prepared screen, stretch your fabric. A square of cardboard cut to the appropriate size and covered in plastic wrap will work well as a mount for your fabric. Place the screen on your fabric and squeegee fabric paint or screen-printing inks through the silkscreen and onto the shirt, bag or fabric yardage. Carefully lift the screen off the fabric and allow the fabric to dry completely. Depending upon your ink, you may need to iron your fabric to set the design. Once dry, you may use another silk screen to add different colors or additional elements to your screen-print design. You may want to consider installing hinge clamps on a work surface to mass produce your do-it-yourself silkscreening in a more efficient and productive manner.
