The last few days have been pretty stressful around here while I fail miserably at screenprinting. Which is odd, because I had no problem creating the screens with Mod Podge and printing on fabrics. But apparently emulsion & printing on paper is beyond my reach. (Or is it the fine lines of the designs that are my real problem?)

This should have been a joyous few days of crafting! Work has been on hold while I wait for email answers & fabric in the mail, and I've had tons of time to spend on printing. Friday & Saturday I worked for hours creating a Christmas themed design. I coated the screens with emulsion, let them dry overnight, and burned my first screen on Sunday.



I was pretty pleased at this point, I could see the image burned into the screen! I started scrubbing off the un-set sections and the design was coming out nice & crisp.



How pretty is that? But wait, no.
As I scrubbed, some of the edges started peeling away, with chunks falling off the screen.



I tried burning the large design again, moving the screen around at 10 minute intervals to try to better heat-set the borders. The results were only slightly better (which is not suprising, since I've not heard anyone mention moving the screen before). Later I tried burning a smaller version of the design, this time using a higher wattage bulb for the first time. I need to experiment a little more with that! Everything started peeling away.




I was able to create *one* successful screen (with the first bulb) of the Christmas ambigram, a more compact design which I figured would not give me as much trouble. I am still feeling optimistic about creating good screens. I have a few idea, a few things I want to try.


What I am really worried about now is the actual printing.

I used the ambigram screen to try out printing on paper. I printed and printed and printed. When it wasn't turning out well I researched online, tried some new things, no improvment. I bought official screenprinting ink. I tried printing on fabric. While the majority of the print turns out fine, I almost always have a few smeary sections. But the main problem is, I have no clue what else I can do to improve it. With out a plan of attack I am feeling pretty lost.


After finally breaking down on Tuesday, I needed something else to work on to take my mind off of the printing for a while. I created a set of Christmas ambigram cards (an altered version of my screeprinting plan). I printed the ambigram and a scalloped border from the computer, framed it with metallic red paper with a spiral print, and stitched it onto white cardstock cards with white & green thread. I had already picked up some matching read envelopes and folded the cards, so the whole thing came together pretty quickly.





Ahh. That's much better!

I have been busy busy the last few days building screens, getting designs finalized, and finally cracking open my photo-sensitive emulsion (currently drying before I burn the image in, we'll have to see how that works out).

I snapped some pictures while I was building the last screen to give you a little step-by-step tutorial! I hate seeing people shell out $20 for something you can build for under $5. (I've also tried the embroidery hoop method, which I would not do again)


1) First, you need to buy some canvas stretchers (art supply store, near the canvases). You will need two bars for the height and two for the width of your screen. They run about $.50 - $1 each (up to $2 for really large sizes).

I recommend getting at least 6 inches larger than your design (both ways) ~ why so much? The stretchers are about 2 inches wide, and the measurements given are for the outside dimensions. Adding 6" will give you a 1" border around your design, and you may want more.

2) Slide the bars together at the corners. You may want a hammer to help align them.





3) Now you will need the fabric for your screen, as well as a staple gun. The fabric should be sheer, without noticable holes. I use organza, which is about $8-10 a yard, but that will make a lot of screens.

Cut off a piece of fabric a little larger than your screen. Staple the fabric down at one side, at the center of the bar. (The bars usually have a ridge along the edge, which is a nice guide for your staples) At the opposite end of the screen, pull the fabric taut & staple at the center of the bar. Repeat for the other two bars.



4) Pick any side of your screen and add a staple on each side of the center staple (about a staple's width apart). Repeat on the opposite side of the screen, pulling the fabric taut. Repeat on the other two bars. Keep working around the screen, in this way, working from the centers to the corners of the screen.



5) Once you have stapled all the way to the corners, I like to add another staple across the corner just to make sure those bars aren't going anywhere. Trim off the excess fabric.



6) You will want to wrap the front & sides of the screen with duct tape to keep any paint from squishing out during printing. It also helps hide those ugly staples! Tape all the way up to the edge of your design, which also helps fill in the negative space.




Now, what do you do with your screen?

Here is a great tutorial on preparing your design and painting out the negative space with Mod Podge. (I would not recommend using the embroidery hoop or nylon)

Feeling a little more ambitious?
Here is a tutorial on burning the image into your screen using photo sensitive emulsion.

This is an image for a t-shirt I've wanted to make for a long time.
My only problem ~ does anyone get the reference??



I think either way I'm going to make a screen of the image because stenciling it does not seem like a good idea (the mane!). So, I guess I could always make one for myself and one to post on Etsy and see how it goes.

The photo emulsion only lasts for about 3 months once I mix it, so I want to get together most of my ideas for shirts beforehand. Then I need to buy the supplies for the screens, which will not be too pricey, and burn the images. Then I need to buy some shirts ~ that is the part that is going to cost money! I love the idea of making shirts that other people will enjoy and wear, but you really don't make much money from them. :(

This has been a pretty fun week for me. I am not working on customs right now, & so I've had some time to really sit down and get a lot of things knocked off of my to-do list. One such thing was adding all of my dresses, skirts, and bags from this year onto my patchwork gallery pages (at least the good ones). I also have a ton of zippers that have been sitting here for years, so I've been whipping up some appliqued coin pouches ~ but you'll have to wait to see those ;)

Last night and this morning Justin has been away at a conference with our church, so I've been busy, busy! I don't have pictures of everything yet, but these two can be found in my shop.



Justin bought me two shirts to screen-print for Christmas, so I went ahead and put the Robby image on both of them. The second shirt is a gray athletic tee, which I'll add soon. I am getting together a list of all of my t-shirt ideas and will start drawing them out soon. (The emulsion only lasts for a few months, so I need to make a lot at once!)

I also got this painting ready for prints ~ "Rainbow Hair"

For a long time I have considered getting some personalized labels to put in my hand-made clothing & other sewn goodies, but I just couldn't get myself to shell out the money for them. You can get printed ones for pretty cheap (or make your own with iron-ons), but I think we all know that the printing rubs off of clothing tags after not too long. Woven ones would last a long time, but are pricey.

One girl did mention making her own by screenprinting a label onto ribbon. Not a bad idea, but I wanted to be able to use colors to match each item ~ I wouldn't want to stick a black and white tag on a earthy brown and green dress.

( So, here's what I came up with... )

I re-made my the screen for my Robby the Robot shirt ~ the first one I made was on an embroidery hoop and very warped. I was going to staple it onto some canvas stretchers but it was not salvaagable.

But for some reason I had so much more trouble with this screen than the others I've made. I just couldn't get the large areas fully covered, dots of ink were escaping through. I would make a print on paper to test it, fix the spots and try again. I was also making some horrible paper prints, which made me worry even more.

Finally, the blemishes were all covered so I very nervously printed on the shirt I bought. It was only a $3 shirt, but if I messes it up I wasn't sure when I'd be able to get another. It came out beautifully! (I have yet to mess a shirt up yet, but with all of the problems I was having that day I was about to say I was cursed)




And...

here is my next design! I'd love to see this in black on a red shirt.

I just finished up another gift bag that I think has to be my favorite of the season ;) It is made from a slick burgundy fabric & then I used my fern screen to print silver fern leaves all over. I made the screen originally for this shirt ~ I knew I would want to use it again! This is my first time making "fabric" with a screen so it was quite fun to do. I've got quite a bit of this fabric left (it's been sitting around for 7 years now?) so I will probably make more of them.


On another note ~
I added a new batch to my site today.
Green Tiny Patch Frog Dress
Brown Striped Patch Leaf Dress

Cherry Blossom Seminole Apron Skirt
PEACE Green Tiny Patch Hip Pouch

Purple Butterfly Wallet
~ and I added the two wallets I posted on here earlier

Lately I have been working on updating some of the clothing I own so that I will actually wear it. (I will post one skirt soon) It reminded me of a skirt I posted on craftgrrl a while ago. I don't have the entry marked in my mem's for some reason, so I will just post the pictures here ~

I made most of this skirt a long time ago but made a mistake. I am used to working with thin calico fabrics, so when I gathered the tiers of the skirt (make from thicker reddish-brown corduroy) the tiers were so full they poofed out like a tutu. Not a bad look on its own, but the poofed out from mid-hip which is not pretty! Unfortunently I had sewn the skirt *really* well, topstitching over almost everything, so I was not anxious to seam rip it all out. It sat there at least a month but I finally pulled the tiers apart and gathered it less.


The tiers looked great, but I am not used to wearing short skirts, and since the bottom poofs out a little I could not feel the fabric against my legs. I did not want the back of the skirt to be caught on my purse or anything with out me noticing, so I added in a really gathered layer of thin black fabric underneath. It really fills up the space well, and adds enough black that I can wear a black top with the skirt (which I always do). The skirt has a pocket on the right side with a trim of a black-background fabric that has little colored circles all over. I re-created the circles along the left side of the skirt, outlining the circles with black thread. It ties in the back with a fabric drawstring.


In the same entry I posted a t-shirt that I had screenprinted with a fern design. There are three overlapped leaves going from darker to lighter as they get closer. I picked a bad shirt for this though, because I feel kind of dumpy in it and don't wear it often. I also do not have any pants that are a good color to wear with it, so I am not sure which is the real problem. But I am very happy to have the screen made up and can print it wherever I want!

After posting the stenciled shirt, I realized that I missed the entry about my first screenprinted shirt (got stuck in the wrong memories folder) ~ so here it is ~

Jan. 31 '05 ~ Robby the Robot Shirt


(Robby is from a few old sci-fi movies, here is a pic of him from The Forbidden Planet)

And here I posted the same thing on _stencilry a few days later. I later took the puffiness out of the sleeves, which added a seam along the top of the sleeve but it looked perfectly normal. I love my Robby shirt!