PhotoEz - a bag, and some tips - a quick tutorial making a first screen printed t-shi
funtimesx
Published by funtimesx
February 10th, 2007
PhotoEz - a bag, and some tips - a quick tutorial making a first screen printed t-shi
OK, not that I am an expert or anything (since I have had the kit for all of about three days, and been peppering Solmu with questions - oh, and heads up Solmu, there's another PM heading your way shortly! ).
But, I have just done my first three colour print with my PhotoEz kit, and I think it turned out pretty well, so I wanted to:
a) Show off
b) Tell people what I did, hoping it helps others!
I apologise in advance if any of you are upset about breastfeeding stuff, but it happens to be my best selling design, so that's what I'm printing. The ink colours do not match my original, because atm I'm using craft paints mixed with textile medium. I'm hoping to order some "proper" gear next week.
So, step by step.
This is a picture of the current design I was aiming to print:
The first thing I did was to separate the design into colours.
Screen 1
Screen 2
You'll notice because I'm a touch lazy, I've only done two screens not three - the olive in the martini is included in the "It's my drink" screen. I'll explain how I still ended up with the three colours later.
Printing out of Photoshop, I selected to add "Crop Marks" to the print out. Then I exposed each print out.
The crop marks ended up as "ghost images" on the screen, so I used an box cutter to put slits through each screen at each of the eight marks.
I laid down the first screen (the one with the martini) onto the onesie, and then used a sewing marker to draw a line on each of the eight marks. Sewing markers are neat little things that you can use to "draw" on fabric, but wash out very easily with tap water. You could equally use sewing chalk on a dark coloured garment. Here is the onesie with the crop marks, and my first layer of ink:
I blow dried the paint using a hair dryer until it was "touch dry" before laying down the second screen. Then I used the registration marks to line up the second screen, and printed the yellow ink on. After that, I again blow dried the yellow ink, washed the second screen, dried it out and lined it up again to do the green in the olive. This only worked because the olive was kind of isolated, and I wasn't incredibly fussy about it overlaying the cocktail skewer too much.
Then I washed the registration marks off using tap water. I was impatient, so the shirt below hasn't been dried before I took the picture (hence it looks a little out of shape!).
There are some obvious flaws - I've laid down a little too much paint, and the olive is missing it's hole in the middle (again, probably because of too much paint). I think this is largely due to poor technique (as I said, I've only had the kit for a few days, and this is my first attempt at screen printing anything), and possibly a little due to "make shift" materials in using craft paint rather than "proper" screen printing ink.
However, if you don't require incredibly precise registration and are only doing a small number of garments, it's a nice "poor man's" way to get a several colour print onto a shirt!
__________________ Parents and Pumpkins - Up-beat gear for down-to-earth families
oh, and heads up Solmu, there's another PM heading your way shortly!
No problem, by the time you read this I will have most likely replied
Quote:
Originally Posted by funtimesx
But, I have just done my first three colour print with my PhotoEz kit, and I think it turned out pretty well, so I wanted to:
a) Show off
b) Tell people what I did, hoping it helps others!
Showing off is fun, and it's cool to see what people are working on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by funtimesx
You'll notice because I'm a touch lazy, I've only done two screens not three - the olive in the martini is included in the "It's my drink" screen. I'll explain how I still ended up with the three colours later.
Lazy can be a good thing when it saves you screens
Using transparent inks you could probably print the yellow screen first as it is now, then print the blue second with the olive exposed on it as well. You'd want to do some tests first, but you should get a decent green just printing the blue onto the yellow on the shirt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by funtimesx
The crop marks ended up as "ghost images" on the screen, so I used an box cutter to put slits through each screen at each of the eight marks.
That's the first time I can recall hearing of someone cutting their screen to give them registration marks. Is the EZ system semi-disposable? (i.e. you can re-use the screen for multiple prints, but not wash out the screen and put different designs on it?).
If your registration marks are exposed and not taped off you want them as far away from the artwork as possible - I say this as someone who occasionally forgets to tape something off and prints it
Quote:
Originally Posted by funtimesx
I think this is largely due to poor technique (as I said, I've only had the kit for a few days, and this is my first attempt at screen printing anything), and possibly a little due to "make shift" materials in using craft paint rather than "proper" screen printing ink.
Perhaps, but that'll pass. It's a good first shirt (or second, or third, or...) - congratulations.
__________________ "Ah, Henny Penny," said Chicken Little, "the sky is falling, and I must go and tell the king."
No problem, by the time you read this I will have most likely replied
Thanks - still digesting that last one .
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solmu
That's the first time I can recall hearing of someone cutting their screen to give them registration marks. Is the EZ system semi-disposable? (i.e. you can re-use the screen for multiple prints, but not wash out the screen and put different designs on it?).
Yes, that's exactly right. Once you expose a screen, that is it. That's why I cut the marks in when they didn't expose properly - I didn't want to waste the screen. For the future, I'll probably add the crop marks myself, so they're a bit thicker and therefore actually expose, so cutting isn't necessary.
Each 8.5 x 11 sheet of transfer paper costs me about $15 AUD landed cost (e.g taking into account the exchange rate and shipping cost). Given many of my designs are small, because they are for baby clothes, I can probably get 3-4 screens from one sheet. So the per screen cost is quite reasonable.
It's probably important to try not to make too many comparisions to this versus a "professional" frame mounted screen on a jig - the former is great if you can afford not to be too concerned about labour and time for each print, the latter sounds great for long run professional stuff.
Having said that, I actually think even with a 1 colour PhotoEz screen, I could pump out more shirts in an hour than I can using a heat press. Using this "registration" method it would become heaps more fiddly and takes longer per shirt than heat pressing does.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solmu
If your registration marks are exposed and not taped off you want them as far away from the artwork as possible - I say this as someone who occasionally forgets to tape something off and prints it
It had been my intention to tape the marks off (actually, I was going to tape the screen to the shirt, covering the marks in the process), but I um...forgot !
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solmu
Perhaps, but that'll pass. It's a good first shirt (or second, or third, or...) - congratulations.
Thanks - practice makes perfect, as they say!
__________________ Parents and Pumpkins - Up-beat gear for down-to-earth families
Each 8.5 x 11 sheet of transfer paper costs me about $15 AUD landed cost (e.g taking into account the exchange rate and shipping cost). Given many of my designs are small, because they are for baby clothes, I can probably get 3-4 screens from one sheet. So the per screen cost is quite reasonable.
Yeah, that is cost effective. More so than I would have expected actually.
Quote:
Originally Posted by funtimesx
It had been my intention to tape the marks off (actually, I was going to tape the screen to the shirt, covering the marks in the process), but I um...forgot !
I think we've all done that
__________________ "Ah, Henny Penny," said Chicken Little, "the sky is falling, and I must go and tell the king."
Can't be any worse than me :P I left the backing on one, exposed it and tried to wash it out. Didn't realise I'd left it on until the whole thing slid off! Still, I have 4 good full-size stencils and a couple of breast-pocket size ones that turned out great. I found sunlight to be the best way to expose, btw.
This is a discussion about PhotoEz - a bag, and some tips - a quick tutorial making a first screen printed t-shirt. that was posted in the T-Shirt Articles section of the forums.
PhotoEz - a bag, and some tips - a quick tutorial making a first screen printed t-shi 
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