By Dan Voknine
[Note: This article first appeared in The Agenda #18]
This is a manual method of screen printing that requires no special
equipment or tools. It does require some drawing or tracing ability however.
The advantage of this method over typical screen printing is that this screen
is permanent and reusable. This particular project is focused on printing to a shirt.
Take an image you'd like to print and bring it into an image editor like
Photoshop. Reduce the image to high-contrast black and white. In Photoshop, first
desaturate the image then use the Brightness/Contrast tool under "Image >
Adjustments." You need the image to literally be just black and white-not full
grayscale.
Get an appropriately sized piece of sheer material (you can use curtain
material from a fabric store). Stretch it tightly across an embroidery hoop and
push the two hoop sections together. You'll want the material to be as tight as
possible on the hoop. Print out the high contrast black and white photo from
your computer and place it under the sheer material on the hoop. Trace the
image onto the material from the inside of the hoop's bowl shape. To avoid
creating a mirror or reversed version of your image, always trace from the
inside. Tracing this way best represents how the hoop and screen will be laid
out on your print surface.
Now that you've traced the image, it's time to begin painting the
negative space. Use Mod Podge glue (found in craft stores) and a small
paintbrush to begin filling in the areas outside your traced lines and shapes.
You are painting the area that will NOT be printed. I recommend painting the
glue on thickly, and as quickly as possible. Be sure to cover any air bubbles
that might exist. In the negatives, these spots will become positives if they
are not filled in. When you're done, overturn the hoop's bowl shape and leave
it to dry with the flat side facing up. This will allow gravity to pull the
glue away from the print side and stops any bumps that might cause uneven
contact with the print material later on.
After the glue has dried, do a final check for air bubbles. If you're
printing to a shirt, be sure to use ink intended for fabrics. You can convert
regular acrylic paint to fabric ink by using a textile medium. Lay the shirt
flat with a piece of cardboard between the front and back to stop ink from
bleeding through. Press the hoop and screen firmly down onto the shirt and
begin applying the ink. Be careful not to use too much, or it will squeeze out
under the screen. Carefully and quickly remove the hoop, and allow the ink to
dry. If you plan on reusing the screen, be sure to wash it out carefully. Later
on, heat seal the ink to the shirt by using an iron and a cotton sheet for 3
minutes.
I don't even know why I'm telling you how to do this. This is
Providence, and none of you have any style. Most of you look a bit like a pile
of laundry. You won't do anything cool with this. You'll probably just make a
shirt that says ROCK STAR, or a "clever" appropriation of the AC/DC logo.
Either that or an image of Bob Marley, or a giant pot leaf-or Bob Marley riding
a bicycle across a giant pot leaf. It could even end up some damn illustrative
single line-width supposed anti-consumer pop art squiggly garbage with that
fucking Barnum and Bailey looking font over it. Oh, that would be great.
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
