The Art Of Screen Printing

1. Introduction: Hello and welcome to the artist Scream, Praying for beginners. My name is Cody and this class I'm going to show you everything from taking your original design. So don't be illustrator. We'll go over how to properly set up your document. US size. How to properly output your design onto transparency. Film. How to coat your screen with the Martian properly. How to burn your spring properly. We'll go over the tools and materials and useful class, setting up your press and finally reading out the class project Be much more. I've been screen printing for about 10 years. I picked up a few tips and tricks along the way. I think I could teach you guys on how to make the process go a little easier. So I have a few examples I would like to showcase on what could actually be achieved through screen printing. To start, I have a few stickers that could be printed used to scream Pretty. I have some product box, A product box. So possible is this constant screen printing. This is a one color. This is more longer lines. What? We're gonna recovering in this class, and we actually had the class project that we're gonna be covered. I have some multiple color prince. That's a more multiple color prints. Have a few more. This is a radiant half tone friend stable. They can also be printed. I have have a burlap bag, so possibilities are endless when it comes to scream praying. So I hope you guys can learn something from this class. I'm really excited to see what you guys come up with and hopefully have a lot of fun in the process and find this class helpful and intuitive. Thank you for taking the time out. Checking out this class. I'll see you soon. 2. Intro to The Document setup: Hello and welcome back to the class in this movie. I'm going to introduce you to Adobe Illustrator's documents set up. And please note in this lesson will be using Adobe Illustrator CC 2017 for Mac. Almost all of the principles demonstrated and covered will apply to future in previous versions. Some differences may apply if you are using a previous or future version. Vector Art is created using illustrations software programs such as Adobe Illustrator. These programs, using mathematic equations in JAMA, trick points lines and shapes to create clean art that can be scaled infinitely without any loss in quality. So this is not to say that Rast a graphic programs such as Adobe Photo Shop in other Raster editing programs can't be used for screen printing applications, such as printing a one color pen and ink drawing half tone artwork and simulated process colors. So this example exceeds the scope of this class. However, I wanted to point this out for future references, so to illustrate this point a little closer, let's take a look at my documents set up. Okay, so let's illustrate this a little bit closer. What I have on my documents set up is the actual art file that we're gonna need that we're gonna be working with for the class project. But before we can move forward with it, there are a few things that I wanted to touch on. Just so you understand the differences between the two different file types. On the right hand side, we have raster and on the on the left hand side, we have a vector. But looking at the file, you know, from this distance, you really can't notice the difference between the two. They pretty much look identical. Um e I mean, you can't really tell which is what, but as I increase the the percentage on both files, you can definitely start to see. The difference is the right hand side is the raster, and you could definitely see how Ah, let's define that the file is and how pixelated it becomes. And when we look over to the laugh, which is the vector and weaken, definitely see how the file retained his continuity and how it's still sharp and crisp. The edges are extremely defined. So this is the reason why we would want to work in this file. Formats specifically when it comes to working with spot colors for screen printing, we definitely want to, um, create vector files and print out vector fall so we can get the best possible, um, results when it comes to us printing out our transparencies because because we wanted to be as opaque and as dark as as we can get it on and again, It's not to say that we couldn't achieve the same look, but it's just because of the different. Because of the, um, the majority of the file taps we're gonna be trading and using are going to be more so, uh in the form of clip art's. So this is the reason why. And just to show you the difference, there actually are two separate files on here. Um, this is the raster version of it, and on the left hand side is the is the vector. So I just wanted to kind of illustrate this a little bit further just so you can get a better understanding and see the differences and why we would want to choose one over the other. So this pretty much concludes this part of the lesson on, and I'll see you in the next lesson 3. Template Overview: and this movie, I'm going to go over Ah, using custom templates in your screen printing for your screen printing projects. For this instance, I'm just basically going to introduce you my workflow. Why? I like to use templates. The main reason why I like to use templates is to save time and to keep everything consistent throughout and to basically, uh, add whatever you currently like to work with, you could create this specific template that you could recall every time that you have a new screen printing project having to go and create a new No, it's time for you to create or output. So for me, this saves me a lot of time, and you could customise your template to the way that you like to work for me. Um, specifically what I like to do. I like to create graphic styles in my specific templates, specific colors, specific strokes that I use on a day to day basis without having to do much work when I already have these things already customize, it just makes the work go so much smoother. For instance, you know your symbols as well. You could create your own different types of symbols for this particular example. I've created a bunch of registration marks. Let's say, for instance, you, ah, had a two color art that you had Teoh do some separations. You definitely need tohave registration marks just for the sake of you know this, you wouldn't want to create registration marks. Every time you have a new project, you want toe output on your transparencies. It wouldn't make that much sense. So just to illustrate this a little bit. For instance, if we had the let's say, for instance, we were going going to do this as ah to color, for instance Ah, we would definitely, uh, we definitely need, um to have some type of crop marks and our art. So instead of sitting next recreating crop marks, you can just go. Let me just show you that again. All you have to do is just go to your symbols and you basically just drag it out and you have your registration mark, and you could size it down to whatever the size you want. And then you want to place it wherever you want to place it duplicated across, and then you basically want to align it to the art board, which is basically here. You go to a line instead of aligning it to selection. If your line into the selection, it's basically it's basically going to allow it, align it to the selections. So, for instance, if I wanted to align it with this art than it would align it to the art rather than the art board. So for this instance, we want the registration mark to be centered within our document. So this is the reason why I have selected a line into art board as opposed to align it to the selection. So this would be the main example in the main reasons why you would want to work this way. It just makes things go a little bit smoother, and it is consistent throughout your work. So another example of this would be, for instance, if we wanted to show the client how their graphic is going to look across different colors of the T shirt selections. You basically create a template, go through the colors. Whatever color is that the customer is referring to. You can basically go through here, take a screenshot and show the customer how the artwork is gonna look across the different colored T shirts. So this is another good example of why you would want to work this way or use. Um, I use templates, and I've always used templates in my workflow. It just makes things go a little bit smoother to apply this work method. And I just wanted to kind of share that this is basically how I would do it. This is how I would work across the board. This is my to go template. This is my default template. So I'm gonna basically go through ah, showing how to create a template. So you basically go through new and you want to go up, be in the print selection. I mean, you don't have to, but I like to keep it the same throughout. And then you want to come here, you can name it. Let's say, for instance, I'll name a template, and then we can change the from points pikers to insist millimeters and so forth and so on for this instance, we're gonna keep it at inches, and I'm gonna you know, again, this is gonna be a little bit different for you. I don't know the size of your printer. The output of your partner most likely would probably be an 8.5 by 11. But for me, I'm gonna keep it 13 by 19. That's my default. You want to keep it seem like a because we're dealing with spot colors. We're not dealing with any thing else. I mean, if you like to work an RGB, you can. But just for this instance, we want to keep it at same like a Ah, you could always change this later if needed. And there are more settings. But we don't need to concern ourselves too much with that. And then you basically create and we have a new template. And this is where you would come in. You customize these templates, your liking, put whatever you like to work in, and then once you're satisfied with your template, then you wanna, um, go here and then you want to save as template. So once you saved as a template, you name it whatever you like, and you could save it wherever you like. But illustrator um, defaults it to their default template folder just for safekeeping. You can keep it in here. We save it. I'm not going to save it cause I already have a template save just so you basically save it and then your template is safe to recall the template you want to go to new from template, and then you'll recall that default folder and then you're basically going here and select the template that you've created, and it just it just select it and then hit new. So it's basically making a copy off of the original template. So I'm not gonna open a template up because I already have one already open, so I'm gonna cancel it. But, you know, if you're going to recall that template, you basically go to new and it will open up a new template of your customised template. So that is pretty much what I wanted to kind of mention and kind of go over in this lesson just so you can kind of get an insight and see why you would want to use the template over , you know, having to create a new document. Every time you have a new project, you wanna output for screen printing. So this concludes this part, I'll see you in the next lesson. 4. OutPutting your Film Transparency Film: Hello and welcome back to the class in this movie. I'm gonna be going over the out putting section. There are a few things I wanted to kind of mention. We'll go over before we actually output are filed to our printer. The one thing you need to keep in mind before we, uh, output are our or to our transparency film. We need to make sure you know, this isn't really complicated. It's just a one color. So the only thing we have to keep in mind before we do that is to make sure that our artwork is centered within our documents set up. So let me illustrate this. So in order for you to ah, make sure that your artwork is a line on your documents set up. You wanna go to the alignment? Ah, sub menu. It's probably going to be embedded within the transform the Pathfinder. So you basically just have to select the alignment and you wanna come down to this sub menu here instead of aligning it to the selection. You want to align it to the art board, so aligning it to the art board is going to align it exactly onto the art board, as opposed to aligning it to any specific selection that you have on your art board. Let's say you have some other elements on here, and if you wanted to send her those elements together, you would, you know, use this function instead of the alignments of art board. So to illustrate this, we basically want to select the horizontal Align center, and it's going to just basically center our artwork dartboard. So this is the only thing we need to keep in mind before we proceed towards the next step, which is the out putting part of it. And the other thing we need to keep in mind. And I think it's one of the important parts is that we need to change Adobe Illustrator's Default Black to an actual black because Adobe Illustrator's black is not a pure black um, you may not be able to see the difference. Ah, between the adobe illustrator's black as opposed to the pure black that I've created. But if we select this and double click on it, you can see here how the Adobe Illustrator black their formula. It's not really a black is that is an actual gray. So the science zero, the magenta zero, the yellow zero and the black is 100 as opposed to my formula. What I've created totally the opposite of adobes. Black, as you could see here, my black is the scientist 60 The magenta is 40 the yellow is 40 and black is 100. And like I said before, I have tested this time and time again. And I've always gotten the same result with using this formula. And again, this is the reason why I mentioned in the earlier video to create graphics styles. So I have a graphic style that I created with that same formula. So all I have to do is select my artwork and hit the, um hit that black and my graphic style. And then instantly everything that I have selected will be transformed to black without me having to go to my swatches, which I also have created a swatch which which has that same breakdown. It's easier for me to have it here. It saves me a little bit of time rather than, you know, going up here and as opposed to here. And I could always take this and have it, you know, closer and you could do the same thing with you, but I just prefer to have it because I don't necessarily need anything up here. So in this instance, I wouldn't need to have this window open unless needed, but for this instance just to illustrate that. And also, I've also stated that to create symbols in your artwork if you wanted to put crop mark in this particular file, you could just by taking it and dragging it and then re sizing it and, you know, sizing it to whatever size you want, you could put it up here, but for this instance, we're not gonna need it because we're not really printing, you know, multiple color project. So you can have that there if you like. So again, this is the reason why I have the shortcuts to help you along with the process when it comes to putting your fault. So the two main thing when it comes to printing your projects is to make sure you are your artwork is a line and to make sure that you have a pure black and so I'm gonna show you a few other things that you need to keep in mind when output in your file and the print setting again. This might be a little bit different for you, depending on the printer you're gonna be using. Um, but just to illustrate this, I just wanted to kind of show you a few things. Just make sure to have the space set up to be the same size as your documents set up. You need to keep that in mind because you don't wanna print something that is different sizes, um, and relations to your your documents set up in your pace that things will get cut off when it comes time for you to print them. The one other thing that I feel is really important is to go into the set up and hit, continue. And then within this dialog box, my printer is not currently connected. So this is why you're seeing this icon to make sure that you come out to the little layout section and you want to go into print setting and within the print setting. You wanna make sure because it always defaults it back to playing paper. Bright white paper. You need Teoh Select Ultra Premium photo paper glossy. What that's going to do is is basically telling the printer that you have, ah, high contrast print color print that you're gonna be sending through. So is telling the Pirner just printed at a slower speed to deposit a lot more ink and to print with the finest detail that the, uh the printer has. And then the one other thing you need to select is basically gray scale. I've gone back and forth between these two. For some reason, I always leave it on this. I always seem to get the same result when using both of these. So that's the only other thing you need to keep in mind before sending your or to print. So this will assure that you're depositing enough black, you depositing enough detail because the other options that have used I've tested, they often leave streaks within the transparency. And that's not good when it comes to exposing or burning your screen. Those streaks will often create problems for you when washing out your screen. So this is the setting that I use all the time and again, this might look a little different for you, depending on the printer that you're gonna be using. So just keep these few things in mind before you. Ah, output your transparencies. And I want to kind of go over the, um, the printer that I'm currently using. I'm currently using an absent artists in 14. 30. It's a large format is 13 by 19. I've used this. Um, you know earlier versions of this particular printer. So I swear by this burner, I've always used this printer. I've never had any issues with this printer, but the price is a little steep. The price is ranging between 3 75 to 400. Roughly. It might be a little bit cheaper. Now I have an alternative. If you're looking for a large format printer that prints 13 by 19 this canon picks IMA Um, I x 68 20 is a pretty good alternative. I've never owned one of these, but I've heard some really good things about this partner when it comes to printing transparencies. If you're looking for printed just to print out transparencies, this will probably be the printer simply because of the price mark on it. It's fairly inexpensive. I've seen it less than the price currently showing here is showing, like, 1 60 but you can get it a lot cheaper than this. So I just wanted to kind of share what I used and how I set things up. So I hope you've learned something from you sharing this, and this pretty much concludes this part of the lesson and I'll see you in the next lesson . 5. Tools & Materials: Hi. Welcome back to the class. This section of the class, we're gonna be focusing on tools and materials needed to complete this course. I will go a little bit more in depth at a later chapter. It's actually break down the usage and the reason why you use one over the other. But for now, I just want to go over the tools that we're gonna need to help us get started in this in this class. So to start up with, we're gonna go with it with a degree sing agent. I do recommend a commercial grade degree, sir, specifically designed for screen printing. But if you can't find one for whatever reason, this will be one of the best alternatives on the market. This product could pretty much find this pretty much anywhere. So you shouldn't have a hard time coming across this if you can't find ah, commercial grade degree, sir. Next on the list. We have a school corner. This is just to protect the protective guard for the school quarter so you don't end up doing the edges. The school quarters pretty much self explanatory. Other than the fact that there are two sides to it. You have a thin side and around it thicker side. Like I mentioned earlier, we're gonna go in depth a little bit more in depth and explain the differences of why you would go into using the fender side, as opposed to the thick around the edge shop towels. We're gonna need some type of shop towels for cleaning up purposes. This is probably going to be some of the best types of paper towels. I don't recommend using you know, your regular kitchen paper towels because they broke down too easily in the cleaning process. It's just ahead Is this just becomes a mess at the end when it comes to the cleaning process. The motion. There are two different types of emotions that I want to go over in this class. The 1st 1 is a pure photo polymer. This one is considered a premixed and also known as a fast burning emotion. The this product already comes premixed, so there's no mixing involved in the exposure. Time on this particular one is a lot faster than the other one, so I wouldn't recommend this one for a beginner. The next emotion we have is a two part and known as a dual cure and also known as a hybrid product. The this one is a two part. The synthesizer has to be diluted with water and then important to the container and then mix and then let to sit overnight or for a couple of hours. And then this one will be ready to go. The the exposure time on this one is a little bit longer, and this gives you a little bit more flexibility when it comes time for you to handle the this particular type of emotion. And this one would be a good recommendation for a beginner because this is this one's a little bit more forgiven and a little bit more flexible than the other one screen wash. We're gonna be some type of screen watch for the cleanup process at the end screen opener. It's not necessary. I do recommend it. It's good to have on hand for emergencies, sweetie, we're gonna need a sweetie. The Squidgy ladies measure and barometers. The blade is made out of polyurethane. There are three hardness. There's a soft medium hard. The soft is measured approximately around 60 garam Attar's. The medium is measured approximately 70 barometers. The hard is measured approximately around 80 Deron motors. For the purpose of this class, we want to stick right in the middle. It's about 70 drama Tres. This is considered in all purpose. So you can pretty much complete all your jobs with the 70 drama Tres This is a laser temperature gun. This isn't absolutely necessary for this class, but I do recommend it. This will alleviate a lot of guesswork and this will give you an accurate reading off the temperature that you should be curing the shirts at, which is approximately around 3 10 to 3 20 So this will, you know, levy a lot of guesswork whether you're over curing their or under curing it. So this will give you on accurate reading of what? The temperature that you should be curing your shirts at. This is transportation. This isn't absolutely necessary, but I do recommend it. This will protect your plant in from blue, and also this will help you in the cleanup process. This will alleviate a lot of headaches for you when it comes time for cleaning up process Screen Printing state. I recommend screen prints, tape if you can't get your hands on screen printed state. There's one other alternative that I've used and it seems to work for me. There are two versions of this. It's It's clear box tape. Don't go with the cheaper version. It's to. Finn will end up tearing as you pull it off the screen, and then they also leave a lot of on the East. Residue on the screen and allergists become a mess. So go for the more expensive box tape. It's a little bit thicker that one will also work as an alternative disposable gloves. We're gonna need some type of disposable gloves. Anything will work. This will help in cleaning up process. At the end, pain stirs. We're gonna be syntactic paint stirs to make Starr thank anything will work. The only one that I would suggest against using are the wooden paint stirs. Those could potentially become problematic for you down the line because they have a tendency of chipping off into the ink, and this could potentially puncture poke holes into your screen so I would suggest against using that Lights need to be working on this and type of light source. I do recommend either the red or the yellow. The purpose for this is we do not want to be working under direct light when we're coding our screens. And also when it comes time for us to expose their screens, we don't want to be working under direct light because this could potentially, uh, harm our screens. We're also going to need some pressure sensitive prepositional spray adhesive. This will prevent our T shirts from moving and lifting on our platinum when we start to print. Screen's gonna be some type of screen for this class. I don't recommend using wooden frame screens for the simple fact that they're unpredictable and they have a tendency of warping the majority of the time. I use aluminum frame screens. They pretty much they last forever, and you don't have to worry about, you know, any chance of these things working and the mesh count I'm using on this is a 1 10 That's the recommended mesh count for this class, and the size that I'm using is 20 by 24 classes. Still, Inc is considered the staple in the garden printing industry for this class. All we really need is in all some type of all purpose plasticity, Inc. For this class, I'm going to be using a white all purpose classes. Still think we've also remover? We're gonna need some type of monster over for the end of the process. This will help us reclaim our screens. We're also gonna need some type of T shirts to print out for this class. Any size, any style will work for this class star brush with. I need some type of scar brush for the cleanup process at the end exposure unit, we got decent type of explores unit to expose our screen. This is the unit that I'm using right now. This is what it looks like on the inside. We're also going to need some type of curing element to cure our T shirts. Um, for this class, I'm going to be using ah, flash curing unit to cure shirts. You can use anything from the likes of I've known people Teoh, using oven secure the T shirts and also, you could possibly use a heat gun to cure your T shirts. But for this class, we're going to be using a flash dryer. Teoh cure a T shirt 6. Degreasing: Welcome back to the class. This is the very first step in the process is the degree sing part. You don't need to have a sink in order to do this. Just to illustrate this point, I'm using a start of Ben to illustrate this. So let's get started. The first step is to basically we wanna sprays are screen evenly with the degree sing agent . And then we want to come in lightly and just basically, we just want to just evenly scrub the surface of the of the mesh on the screen way over to the opposite side. Theis Point. We just want to make sure that we're getting even coverage of the off the area of the screen just to make sure we grade ourselves of all the contaminants. And then after that, we just basically just want to rinse off the so president way the opposite side. So at this point, we want to find a clean environment in our homes to arrest the screen and allow it to dry. That's all there is to it. I'll see you in the next chapter 7. Mixing Emulsion: So now we're ready to make sorry motion, as I mentioned earlier, and the tools and material chapter that we need to have some type of controlled light source for this purpose. Right now. I'm currently working under the yellow light bulb, as suggested, and this will prevent any damage to the sensitize er while handling it. So the first step we need to do is we need to open the sensitize er container, and we need to fill it up halfway with some of the still water, and we just basically need to shake this out until it's terribly mixed. And then we need to open our glue base emotion, and then we need to pour this into the emotion and then we need to mix the sterile E. This will cause the emotion base to change color, and this will often be a good indication that you've makes the product well after the mixing process, allow the mixture to sit for about 2 to 3 hours. This will allow the all the bubbles to dissipate and the emotion just basically just to mix this well until everything is incorporated. Try not to get the sensitize er liquid on your hands because this will often, um, change. I'll turn your skin color a bright yellow. So we just basically just want to continue stern this until everything is incorporated well enough. And until the, um, sensitize er you no longer see in here, and I only want to basically see it turns. It turns this from blue to green. A green tent. I'm not sure if you could see it, um, through the lens, because simply because I'm working under the yellow white. So this is this should be well mixed. And then basically, we want to just let this sit for 2 to 3 hours just to allow the bubbles to dissipate. I will see you in the next chapter. 8. Coating Screen With Emulsion: Welcome back to the class. This part of the class, we're gonna be focusing on how to code our screens. Probably as I mentioned earlier, we should be working under some type of controlled lighting. I'm currently using the yellow bald, as I suggested in an earlier class. So, basically what we want to do, we want to fill a scoop quarter with emotion, about about a cup roughly. And then what we want to do, we want We basically want a place, our school quarter against the mesh until we see a B of emotion touching our screen. We want to basically start with the print side of the screen first. And then we basically this one slowly and gradually, um, the screen going up and everyone to stop about an inch away from the frame of the screen. They want to roll back and allow the allow the emotion to roll back into the school quarter . And then we wanna press up and away from the from the screen. And then we want to repeat the same process on the Exide off the screen again. We want a place, our school quarter against the screen until a beat of emotion is touching the frame or the mesh of the screen. Now we basically just want to pull up slowly. You want to stop rollback, allow the rest of the emotions to settle back into the school colder, and then we want to just basically press up in awake from our screen. And then there we have it are screen is probably quoted and what we want to do. At this point, we want to find a dark place in our home to allow this to dry for a couple of hours or for best results, possibly overnight. And we want to dry our screen, the print side facing down. So we want a lower screen to dry the way that I'm showing it here, and they want to put this in a dark room away from dust away from light. 9. Storing And Shelf Life Of the Emulsion: Okay, so now we want to pour the excess of the emotion back into our container. This isn't This is very easy. All you want to do is just pop the edges. This is the purpose of the edges coming apart. Basically. Just wanna poor that the leftover emotion back into our container. And then you can use a piece of cardboard to scrape the rest of the emotion back into your container. They basically want white down the excess emotion off of the edge of your the motion. Okay, so I'm gonna talk a little bit about the storing and shelf life of the emotion. Three emotion is heat sensitive, so you want to keep the emotion in a room that's below 95 degrees. Anything above 95 is not gonna work because that could potentially damaged emotion. So the best place that you can store the emotion, in my opinion, is the refrigerator. And also that's gonna prolong the life of the emotion for a lot longer than what the factor recommended life span on. The emotion is so you can store this new refrigerator up to maybe four months. This will keep up for about 44 months in your refrigerator. 10. Exposure Unit & Exposing The Screen: Okay, so we're getting closer to the exposing part of the class. Just a few things I would like to mention before we move ahead. My exposure unit is gonna be a little bit different from yours, but the concept and the process is pretty much the same across the across the board. The only thing you have to keep in mind is just for this instance because it's a one. Color is fairly straightforward. The only thing you have to keep in mind is to make sure that your artwork is center and your offer is pretty much straight when it comes time for you to align your screen for me. What I have mine might be a little different. I have a guy that I have on my exposed unit, and I have a center line right down the middle, and I also have a similar line right down the middle of my artwork. This makes the alignment and straightening out your design onto your screen a little bit more, uh, simpler. And I also have a center line right down the middle of my screen. Um, this is the method that I like to work in because as soon as you can see that it makes aligning your screen fairly easy. And this is this is especially handy when you're doing multiple colors. So as you could see, all I have to do is basically a line. Uh, my, uh the lines that I have the center line that I have on my screen against my central line that I have on my guy and they my center line on my artwork is fairly in the same positioning, and this is gonna make the process go a lot smoother. So without any further ado, let's get started. 11. During the Exposure Process: Hi. Welcome back to the class. This part of the class, we're gonna be going over the exposing part of the class, another term that's used burning our screen. But before we get into it, there are a few things that I would like to go over a few things Teoh watch out for during the process. The first thing you have to keep in mind is that before you get into the process is to make sure that your transparency is dark enough. Um, if if if it's not dark enough, you could always print a second design on your transparency and then basically tape it together often time that will remedy that issue. You're gonna need some clear scotch tape toe Attach your film positive, Teoh glass off whatever exposure unit that you're gonna be working with. Either way, all this is gonna be the same across all the explosion units. At this point system. Matter of preference. The key to exposing is to have the emotion coated mesh your film positive the glass sandwich together completely. Entitle e Any gaps may cause light leaks around the film positive and exposed the emotion behind it. And that will make the washout process very, very in extremely difficult for you to Awasthi, for you to wash it out. So that's one major thing Teoh. Keep your eye out for the next thing to keep. To keep an eye out for is the under exposing off your screen? Um, you can tell if your screen is under exposed during the washout process on the ink side of the of the screen, you'll start to notice a study soapy appearance, and also you'll start to notice, uh, the screen will be a little slimy to touch, and that's a good indication that your screen is under exposed. You could always salve is that only if you have completely washed out your design, and then at that stage, you can take it blotted out with some newsprint or some paper towels, and then you could either take it on and just have to make sure that you removed all the moisture out of the screen and then you take it, put it back onto your exposure unit and he can expose it for a little bit longer, or you can take it and set it out in the sun and a lot of Sun Teoh. Sure, it back up, and then your screen should be ready. The one other thing I would like to go over before we move onto the next phase is over exposure. You'll know if your screen is over exposed, it will be extremely difficult for you to wash out the image to salvage this. If it's not too far gone, often time you can take your finger and rub the image area. Or you could take a soft toothbrush and work those areas out and a few other things that could happen. If you're using any half tones or if using any fine lines, often time, those will end up up. Those will actually be the first Teoh close up. So without any further ado, let's move onto the next phase, the exposing face. I'll see you in the next lesson. 12. Pre Washout: I welcome back to the class this part of the classes, the washout section. After we've exposure screen, we want to take it to our sink. We want to start with the ink side of our screen facing us, and they want to give that a light spray. They want to flip it over. We want to give the print side a light spray and then won't allow that to sit for about 30 seconds or so that we could begin washing out our image from top to bottom A. To this stage, we went out. Pay close attention to working with the print side of our screen simply because that's the side that's been affected more by the light during the explosion process. In other words, this part is gonna be a little bit tougher for us to work with. Um, as opposed to the ink side, the inside will be a little bit more sensitive, so we wanna work more on the print side. Um, during that will start to notice that our emotion is starting to wash away, revealing the bare mesh where our image will be, and then once we're satisfied that the entire image has washed out. Then we could then take our screen, flip it, flip it around, showing the prince the x side of our screen. Then we can give that a quick rinse. Then, at this stage, we could take it and hold it up against the type of lighting we have in our shop just to double check. And then from that stage, we could take it, uh, get either use, um, unused print. Or we can use some paper towels to block out the war. We want to pay close attention to removing all the moisture. We don't want to leave any moisture in our screen simply because, uh, the water could contain a thin film of the emotion. And if if left dry aren't in our image area, that could potentially damage are are sparse screen. This is called glazing. So we want to pay close attention to that. When I make sure that we have removed all the moisture in our screen from that stage, we can take it, uh, put it back into our exposure unit. We could expose it for a little bit longer, or if it's daylight out, we could just take our screen place it out into the sun and allow the sun to cure it for a little bit longer. So that pretty much concludes this part of the class and I'll see you in the next lesson. 13. Washing Out The Screen: now that our screen has been exposed, Probably as mentioned in the earlier video. You want to start with the Exide, so we want to give this a light straight. And now we want to flip it over. Give the print side of light spray way Won't allow this to sit for 30 seconds. Okay, after 30 seconds is up now, we want to start spraying. As I mentioned earlier in the earlier video, we want to focus more on the print side. The reason for that is because this side has been exposed the most throughout the exposure process. So I'm gonna start spraying this side now. We should start seeing our emotion breaking away and revealing the bare mesh in our image area. Then we're gonna continue to spray. - We're almost theme at this stage. You could just basically just hold it up against him, like just to make sure that we have pretty much cleaned out all our emotion where our art should be a little bit more theme now at this stage once were happy with that. You know, the whole entire image, it's completely washed out. And then this is the stage where we want to basically take it and flip it. And we want to give the excite a quick rinse theme. And now, at this stage, we want toe start. Blotting are our screen make making sure that we remove all the moisture out of our sweet as I mentioned in an earlier video. This is this is important to make sure that we blot out our area, make sure we remove all the moisture out of our screen. Oh, and at this stage, we can hold it up against the like way could begin blotting out our image. Just making sure that we will move all the booth and again. Just keep checking it against our life. Continue to keep blocking this area out until we completely remove everything all the water and again, this is really important that we take out all the war. We don't leave any water in here, and that's pretty much it. Just keep checking to make sure that we removed all the water. At this stage, it looks everything looks good. So I'm gonna allow this to dry. As I mentioned in an earlier video, we can either from this stage, we could either take it put it back into our exposure unit. Well, we could take it and put it out in the sun and allow it to, uh, continue Teoh to dry out, like in the sun. So this concludes this part of the class. I'll see you in the next lesson. 14. Taping off TheScreen: I welcome back. This part of the class is the taping up our screen section. This section is fairly easy. It's pretty straightforward. You just need to get yourself some good screen printers tape again. The purpose for this is to basically want to cover our edges where the open every is our in our screen based if you want to take that off to prevent Inc from leaking through during our party process. And again, as I mentioned in an earlier video, you can get a thing called Blackout or you could basically use leftover emotion to basically block out these areas. But for the purpose of this class, we're going to keep it simple. We're just gonna go ahead and and use just some basic screen prentice tape just to cover our edges. And this is fairly, uh, is this very easy just basically going over edges, basically making sure that we cover edges correctly. There isn't any right or wrong way of doing. This is just basically, you just have to cover your edges enough so the ink doesn't come through during the printing process. So here is the last piece we're gonna place on the on the print side, and they want to flip it over to the inside. I like to shimmy my screen. I don't like my screen touching the surface directly, so I usually would shimmer the edge one edge of the screen. So it's not directly touching the surface because I don't want anything Teoh happen during this process. So I'm just gonna come in. I'm gonna use, um, clear tape. As I mentioned earlier, you could use the good box clear tape, which is the thicker a clear box tape. So we're gonna go ahead, we're going to cover the inside part parts of the screen. So we're just basically just gonna come in and we just can't lay a little piece of tape in inside and interest rates this run our fingers over it was gonna do thier corner edge. You just basically just wanna I And then we're just gonna come along. We're gonna do the same from this side. They were gonna do the same on the opposite side, and that's pretty much it. This pretty much covers this part of the class. I'll see you in the next section. 15. Setting up To Print: Hi. Welcome back to the class. This part of a class we're gonna be setting up a press. This part is fairly is fairly simple, my ex. My press is probably going to be a little bit different from yours. But again, the principle, the concept behind it is gonna be the same throughout. So as I mentioned in an earlier video, I have my center lines running down the center of my screen. And I also have my center line running down the center off my clamps on my press. And then I also have a central line running down the center off my platt in. So the purpose for that is to basically when it comes to the alignment, just to make sure to make sure that your screen is straight, you basically just center that against your clan and you just basically just bring it down . And at this point, what you want to do now you want to basically center this centre line down your your screen against the center line on your press, and then you just basically just going and just tightened used this Basically, tightness, you're clamps down. And this would hold your screen in place and space that you just want to tighten it, to touch, not to type. And then my screen is ready to go. I don't have to fuss around with it too much. Um, and that's pretty much it for this part. So this concludes this part of the class. I'll see you in the next sex. 16. Loading And Aligning The Shirt: Okay, so welcome back to the class. This part of the class, we're gonna be focusing on the actual US aligning our T shirt printing the actual class project. So let's begin before we begin to, we have to lightly spray our platinum and please keep in mind when you're spraying, You want to basically pay attention to just the area that we're gonna be printing our design on our T shirt. We don't want to spray the whole entire Platon. We just basically one of focus on just that particular area. So let's I'm just gonna lightly sprays are flatten just in that area because we don't want any excess glue all over our planet. So to load up the T shirt, we basically want to take the T shirt. We want to talk the T shirt underneath our chin and we basically want to roll the T shirt up towards us and then we want to go over and they want to go under. And then at that stage, we wanna pull the T shirt, talk all the way to the back and then at this stage, you want toe basically check to see if if we have equal spacing between the shoulder and the arm seemed on both sides to see if we have equal distances on both sides. That's going to give us a good indication that our T shirt is somewhat straight on our platinum. And at this stage, we want to basically grab the, um, the collar seen the shoulder seam, and then we want to basically lift our T shirt, and we want to bring it and position it where are designed and where the neck of our T shirt is gonna land perfectly. So at this stage, we just faced if he just when I lightly smooth out the creases on our shirt and again just focus on the area that you're gonna be doing the printing, So I'm basically focusing on the area that I'm gonna be pretty. So that's pretty much how you would basically set up your T shirt, align your T shirt, and then you could basically start printing from this from this stage. So this covers this part of the class. I'll see you in the next section 17. Test Print: Okay, so welcome back this part of the class, we're gonna be focusing on doing a test print on our shirt. We're not gonna actually do the test sprint directly on our shirt because we don't want to ruin our T shirt. Another method you could do if you have some old T shirts laying around in your shop, you could basically use those for your test print. But for this purpose, I'm going to show you another method that could be used to test print your T shirts without having to use on old T shirt or anything like that. So basically, all we need is this The same is actually it's gonna be the same thing that we've used on our planet in its transfer tape. But this transfer tape is clear. So all we want to do we basically want to ally R T shirt where we feel that the design is gonna land on, and it would basically just want trim excess, and then we just basically just want to smooth it out. My personal opinion. I like this myth that better simply because we don't have Teoh waste a T shirt looking basically after we've printed the tests on our test sheet or we have to do is basically just ripped, attested off and throw it away. And we could just begin printing from from that stage. Okay, so welcome back. We've established the alignment of our T shirt. We've basically a line on T shirt for a test print. And instead of doing the actual print on our T shirt, we're actually using clear transfer Tate. Two tests are to basically test our print and basically check our alignment to see if our T shirt and to see if the neck over T shirt in our design is gonna fall where we wanted the positioning to be where we want it to be. So, at this stage, basically just one on loan your your screen with with plasticity ankle whatever you're gonna be using. But for this class, we're gonna be using plastic still. So, what you want to do flood the design area of your T shirt and you want to push it back. And then now you want to basically hold your squeegee at a 45 degree angle, and then would not. You don't have to put too much pressure, but just enough pressure to push the bank through the your image area. And so we're just basically gonna do a test print, and then at this stage, we want a flood, our screen back up, and then we want to check our test print, and that's pretty much what it looks like to me. It looks pretty good. So at this stage, I'm basically going to take the clear transfer tape off our shirt. This is our design, and I'm just gonna set it aside, and then now who could begin pretty? 18. Printing The Class Project : so basically again the same method. We basically want a full of the screen and everyone arrested screen down. And then we basically want a holder squeegee at a 45 degree angle. And then we want to just press with enough force and release. They want to lift it up, flood it back up check, are designed to see if if it meets our expectations at this stage, you could take it and flash it in between. But for this instance, I'm not going to flash it. I'm just basically gonna go over a second time. So you wanted to the same thing. You want a whole your squeegee out of 45 degree angle, and you basically wanna put enough pressure on it just to push the ink through the on your image area, and then you want to flood it back up for the next train, and then that's pretty much it. So we establish or print on our T shirt. The positioning is roughly about three inches. It's This is exactly where we wanted to be. So at this stage, our T shirt is finished. It's time for us to move on to the next phase, so I'll see you in the next chapter 19. Curing The Finished Print: Okay, so we just got finished printing our class project. So now it's time for us to cure the shirt for this instance. I'm going to be using my flash dryer to cure my cure. My shirt. Um, now we basically want a pull a T shirt off of our plat in, but we don't want to just pull it, because that could potentially stretch our image on our plat in. So the best way to pull the shirt off of the Platen is by releasing the back side of the T shirt first. And then we want to go ahead and pull the front of the T shirt, and then we just basically just want a maneuver it around until it gives it gives it gives way and then at this point, what we could do it since we're gonna be using our flash dryer week unfolded halfway and then just basically rested r r rush on our board and then basically wanna bring over our flash drive swinging over our image. I know for a fact for mine is about 20 seconds to achieve the right temperature. A zai stayed in the beginning to basically get a laser temperature gun, and that's gonna pretty much give you the right temperature for a T shirt. So, as you could see, I had the laser pointer underneath my flash drive, and now I'm basically just checking the temperature. We want this to reach at roughly 3 10 or 3 20 So that looks pretty good to me as faras the temperature. So I'm gonna pull my, um, flash dryer off my T shirt because we don't want to scorch our shirt. Oh, and our T shirt is pretty much completed. Uh, the drying process is completed. Another method of checking to see if you've cured your cheese shirts. Probably you could do the stretch test to basically see if there's any cracking in our bank during the test stretch. But for this instance, like I said, you could bypass. That's the stress test by getting yourself laser temperature gun. This will give you an accurate reading off the temperature that you should be curing your T shirts at. So this pretty much concludes this part of the class. I'll see you in the next lesson. 20. Outro & Thanks: Thank you so much for taking the class. I hope you enjoyed it. Hope there wasn't too much information. And I hope all skill levels found something a bit new and interesting. Moving forward. Please check out the links provided for some additional information on the class and please feel free to contact me with any additional questions. Thank you so much. I will see you soon.