saturday screen printing

This morning I woke up in the wee hours and decided to finally just dive in and try out some screen printing. I received a Speedball Fabric Screen Printing Kit from my brother-and-sister-in-law for Christmas, but had been too chicken to use it. Since I still don't have a means to expose a screen with photo emulsion, I used drawing fluid and screen filler instead.

The first step is to draw the design on the mesh with a paintbrush and the blue drawing fluid.

It took awhile.

After that dries, you spread a layer of the red screen filler over the top with a squeegee.

This is where things went wrong.

The screen filler started to pool up on one side and dripped through the screen, dissolving the drawing fluid. Some of the circles started to bleed as well.

decided to wash out the screen anyway.

And do a test print.

I really love how it turned out! I'm going to go back and paint screen filler around the bad dots, and see if that helps. I'm disappointed that some areas can't be fixed (lines where the screen filler bled in and filled the mesh), but I'm trying to remember that this is a learning experience.

Unfortunately, this means I need to go back to the drawing board for the Handprinted Fabric Swap. I think I'm going to go pick up a light and some transparencies and give the photo emulsion a try! Now that I've tackled my first screen, I'm not that scared.

What I learned-- 

I need to have more patience with drying time. I tried to rush the drawing fluid by hitting it with a blast from the hair dryer. I think that actually reversed the drying process and made it tacky.

I need to leave a bit more space around my design on the screen. There really was very little area for the drawing fluid to go at the beginning before I spread it out, and I think that's why it pooled.