[CubanBeats]

Well I had this idea that i thought was pretty good for a contemperary urban art t shirt line I'm trying to start up. Some of my images will be hand drawn and some will be generated from the computer.

I wanted to take some classes on silk screen printing but its just my luck that none are available here in las vegas!

As far as supplies go I have a screen, screen filler, squeegee and ink.

I was wondering whats the best way to go about screen printing your own shirts? any kits anyone would recommend buying?

I also was wondering how do you "burn" and image on your screen?

Some of my shirts will need multiple layers how would i go about doing this ?

Whats the best way to dry your shirts to ensure the image stays on well?

Anyone here try the yudu? I was thinking about that or maybe a more traditional method for making the shirts.

I'm sorry if all this information has been asked multiple times before any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Fauxfax]

Go to YouTube and do a search for 'Screen Printing' - watch all the video's and the ones that are associated with them. A search for 'Ryonet' in YouTube also throws up a lot of useful information. That's a start but be aware that it will raise as many questions as it solves. When you have a specific question do a search on here and the answer will probably already be here.

 

[CubanBeats]

Thank you! I been watching some videos I think im just gonna mess around with my screen and see what happens.

 

[foot print]

(quote)
I wanted to take some classes on silk screen printing but its just my luck that none are available here in las vegas!

I live in San Diego but one of my buddies is a screen printer from Vegas (lives here now) and he says they have giant shops in Vegas. and one of these ~~~~>

Las Vegas School of Screenprinting
5360 Procyon Street, Las Vegas, NV 89118
(702) 597-5990‎

 

[bootlegclothing]

well I'm sorta new as well..... ok let me take that back about 20 years ago I did it for a year or so but ya long time too many parties etc etc has made me forget a ton too so I'm saying I'm new with a kick start.... but if you learn some off the vids and still have a question on parts let me know I'll do my best to help ya out....if I can that is, I'm no expert but I get by

 

[Celtic]

I wanted to take some classes on silk screen printing but its just my luck that none are available here in las vegas!


Actually, there are.........
go to the Airbrush Action website.
They have 'airbrush getaways' in Vegas and have added screenprinting classes.

Ryonet (silkscreensupplies.com) have some great dvds available.

 

[Fauxfax]

There is a lot to learn. It takes a lot of study and watching tutorials and then making practical mistakes and then reading more and trying to correct them. If you want to design, print and also market your garments it's even harder. Some people just design and then get professional printers to produce their garments - and there are very sound arguments for doing this. If you can start by completing a course you would be getting a great 'leg up' and you might prevent yourself making a lot of costly mistakes or making so many mistakes you eventually give up. Being taught by professional printers could pay for itself in the long run.

 

[bootlegclothing]

yes classes would help but it is not THAT hard to do...I think if you watch the vids out there on youtube and just sat down and tried it you'd be just fine

 

[foot print]

Screen printing is harder than it looks. The person on the videos has been pulling a squeege a while I'm sure. Taking classes or even getting with a shop would save alot of head ache and would learn alot of the do's don'ts and why's and why not's.. I've been in the game a ling time and I'm still learning.

 

[CubanBeats]

Thank you all for responding! I think I will look more into the classes I came across one online for las vegas but the site hasnt been updated since 2006! I also looked into taking some college classes since I plan to major in graphic design and minor in business. I have been doing as much research as possible when it comes to kits. I know there a few different methods of doing it which seems like it makes screen printing definitely more interesting and a little harder to do.

I definitely want to print my shirts myself and design them. I find the whole process to look very interesting and fun. As far as marketing goes I have no idea how i am going to go about that yet. Maybe start off with some word of mouth, stickers, wheatepastes and some networking sites.

Once again thank youuuu!

 

[pyrophire]

You should probably do some research first and crunch some numbers to see if its even worth the expense to print shirts. I see this alot, where people have designs and buy equip and everything only to have a few dozen shirts sit in boxes because no one is actually interested in what they have made.

 

[CubanBeats]

Yeah thats what my boyfriends telling me as well. I think im going to buy a 150 start up kit from ryonet and print some shirts and see how it goes. I hang out with a bunch of artists who are very good and I want to have a few of my friends do a guest design for my line.

Dont get me wrong im not trying to go out and throw 2000 on a screen printing press and all that jazz just yet.

But since I am majoring in graphic design it would be nice to learn how to screen print I definitely want my own business one day. I feel like I would probably make a decent living doing freelance graphic design and screen printing . But we will see how it all works out

 

[Fauxfax]

I find the idea of an artist creating designs and producing wearable T-shirts of that design very exciting.
'Bootlegclothing' says he doesn't think screenprinting is that hard to do, but from my own personal experience, and I have two honors degrees - one of which is in Fine Arts, - I personally find it a very deep subject. Doing a one colour print is pretty simple but as a graphic designer you are talking about multi colour images produced from Photoshop or Corel split into component channels and printed out seperately and then aligned on screens. The more you want out of it, the more you need to study and the more physical mistakes you will make. You could study screenprinting for a lifetime and still not know every aspect of it - foil, flock, process, spot. Which is why it is maybe best to start with one colour. (You can create pseudo halftones in Photoshop which will help you with figurative images.)
Can I suggest that if you are doing a graphics course that you speak to your tutor, tell them what you are all about and ask for a placement with a garment printer. They will have the clout to make that happen. If you do buy a small screen printing setup you can learn it while you study and it could turn out to be a great asset when you are ready to use it. Good luck.

 

[bootlegclothing]

ok guys dont get me wrong there is some parts of it that are a pain but all in all it is not THAT hard..... someone could get a kit and be printing within days.... now yes they may not produce AWARD WINNING designs right off the bat BUT it is not THAT hard that you have to go to school to do it....... look at the net there are people doing this with lightbulbs and paper cut out stencils and doing it so ya it is not THAT hard.... now could they keep up with the pros prob not but are they doing it???? so my point is watch a vid or two and ryonet sends u vids to watch and from those you CAN do it..... will it take time to get up to pro level????well ya but can u be doing it in a cpl days????? the answer is yes!!!! now you want to spend more money (that u dont HAVE to) go for it but you dont need to is my point.....

 

[femma]

Hey there!

Keep in mind there is a huge difference between screenprinting and screenprinting WELL. Some people have more a knack for it than others, some people are more detail oriented and have higher standards. If you're printing your own line, you are responsible for EVERYTHING you sell. So if it doesn't look good, that reflects on your line AND you. I suggest if you're going to do something, learn it right the first time. Take some classes, it will answer some questions that you didnt even know you needed to ask. You'll be able to experiment, see what your good at, and most of the time the cost of supplies is built into the classes so if you decide not to screenprint, you don't have a bunch of wasted materials you can't unload around.

 

[Ingridlaughs]

Hey there!

Keep in mind there is a huge difference between screenprinting and screenprinting WELL. Some people have more a knack for it than others, some people are more detail oriented and have higher standards. If you're printing your own line, you are responsible for EVERYTHING you sell. So if it doesn't look good, that reflects on your line AND you. I suggest if you're going to do something, learn it right the first time. Take some classes, it will answer some questions that you didnt even know you needed to ask. You'll be able to experiment, see what your good at, and most of the time the cost of supplies is built into the classes so if you decide not to screenprint, you don't have a bunch of wasted materials you can't unload around.

I agree with Emma and others who mentioned taking classes--that way you won't be laying out money for the equipment, and the school's equipment is bound to be better than whatever the average beginner can afford or is willing to spend.

I was forced to taking "serigraphy" (as it was once called) back in art school, and initially wondered why I had to waste an entire YEAR on it. What did it have to do with graphic design or illustration??

Well, it turned out I LOVED it, and it also was a quick course in the basics of color separation and numerous other foundation-type aspects of graphics. What you don't realize at the beginning of art school is that graphic design and illustration are really about PRINTING. Not always, of course, but most of the time, and certainly when it comes to earning a living doing either. (Fortunately for a lot of us, computers came along just in time to spare us having to do our own color separations. Hard to imagine doing a watercolor illustration in black and white, on separate sheets of paper, and hope it all registered and was the right balance of percentages, right choice of inks, etc. Nightmare!)

If you can find a school, your equipment money could go there, and best of all you'll discover whether or not you love screen printing before you get in too deep. I suspect you have to love it in order to do it, because it can take a while to get established--especially these days--and you want to be doing something that makes you happy during those times when the cash isn't pouring in.

 

[pyrophire]

I completely agree with Emma.

 

[tpitman]

Since you're (I'm guessing) a student in high school or just starting college, you might want to call a few local screenprinters, tell them your a graphic design student, and would like to come to their shop to see how the whole system operates. You'd get a quick lesson and maybe gain a basic understanding of the process.

 

[m_short]

Since you're (I'm guessing) a student in high school or just starting college, you might want to call a few local screenprinters, tell them your a graphic design student, and would like to come to their shop to see how the whole system operates. You'd get a quick lesson and maybe gain a basic understanding of the process.

tpitman makes a great point. I recommend calling a few places to see what goes on in a shop before you jump into anything class wise. I know there was a conversation earlier about screen printing not being to hard, and printing isn't all that hard but printing well enough to charge for your work is. If you're planning on printing fashion based work I would expect you would need to sell the shirts for $30~$50 at retail to stay on the competitive edge. You always have to keep in mind that it's easier to start selling with high prices and go lower but once you discount your prices it's twice as hard to raise them down the road.

My advice would be to send out all your work to a shop that will yield work that you can charge the fashion price and start learning on your own. Once you get used to printing and can produce high end work than you can bring all the printing in house. But that's just my 2 cents.

 

[MOYA]

Ryonet is a great place to get any equipment you need. We get all of our supplies from them, and they're great. They also offer a really fun, detailed two-day class for beginning screen printers. It's in LA, not Vegas, but it's definitely worth the drive. You can see what the class is like in this video. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0zO1PBEU0g[/media]