{"id":65410,"date":"2022-03-11T00:21:38","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T00:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/?p=65410"},"modified":"2022-03-11T00:21:38","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T00:21:38","slug":"a-beginners-guide-to-the-silkscreen-printing-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/blog\/a-beginners-guide-to-the-silkscreen-printing-process\/","title":{"rendered":"A Beginners Guide to the Silkscreen Printing Process"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RSpsWewtxXw?autoplay=1&#038;mute=1\"><\/iframe>The silkscreen printing process is used to print on a variety of surfaces, including clothing and paper. This guide will help you understand the basic steps in the screen printing process.<\/p>\n<p>In this guide, the silk screening process will be explained for beginners. This guide will show you the steps required to create your own tshirt with a silkscreen. Before you begin, you&#8217;ll need to decide what type of clothing you want to print on, and how many colors of ink you will need. Typical clothing-related silkscreen projects that are created today include printing on tshirts, sweatshirts, canvas bags and pillows. The process is slightly different depending on what type of garment or product you&#8217;re planning to print.<\/p>\n<p>T-Shirts: Tshirts are the most common type of garment that is screen printed. To complete a t-shirt project, first you will need to sketch out your design and make sure that it fits well on the shirt in terms of size and positioning. Use any drawing program to create your design and then print out a copy for reference. If you don&#8217;t have access to a printer, try going to Kinkos or some other copy store.<\/p>\n<p>When creating your design, remember that it&#8217;s best to keep it simple and bold. Avoid intricate designs that could get lost in the printing process. If you want to use multiple colors in your design, one method is to print each color separately and then assemble them<\/p>\n<p>The silk screen printing process is used to decorate a wide range of materials including shirts, hats and bags. It is also used for printing on glass and ceramics. The process has been in use for over 150 years, with the first patent being registered in 1844. As well as having a long history, the process is both very versatile and relatively cheap.<\/p>\n<p>MaterialsThe major equipment required for silkscreen printing is a squeegee, and a silk screen frame or stencil. A squeegee is a rubber blade held in place by a handle and is used to push ink through the silk screen onto material below. A silk screen frame can be made from wood or metal, it will have a mesh stretched across it made of silk or other fine fabrics. Ink is applied to the mesh which then allows the ink to pass through and onto material that lies beneath it.<\/p>\n<p>The silk screen printing process is a very versatile method of creating custom shirts, printing on hats, and is great for printing onto invitations and other small objects to give as favors at weddings or parties. It&#8217;s also a great way to get started in the world of screen printing, before investing in more expensive equipment.<\/p>\n<p>If you already own a computer, a printer and some ink, this is an inexpensive way to get into the silk screening business. Another benefit of silk screening is that there are limited tools needed for the process. You will need a light table to properly prepare your art work prior to printing it on your shirt or other material that you wish to print on. The light table will help make sure that the colors are blended together properly and all lines of your design show up on the shirt without any missing parts or colors bleeding into others.<\/p>\n<p>When you have everything you need, then you are ready to move on to a step-by-step guide of how to actually print your t-shirt using a silk screen process.<\/p>\n<p>Silkscreening is a process that uses a woven mesh screen and a stencil to apply ink to a garment. It&#8217;s often used for printing T-shirts, but it can be used for almost any fabric and even things like furniture and housewares.<\/p>\n<p>Lets look at the details:<\/p>\n<p>Recognizing the different parts of a silk screen printing machine:<\/p>\n<p>The frame of the machine is made up of two outer frames connected at one end by hinges, with an inner wooden or metal bar connecting them in the middle. The screens are held in place by small clamps that attach to the wooden bar.<\/p>\n<p>The mesh screen is stretched across the wooden bar so that you can see through it when you hold it up to the light. The holes in the mesh are small enough so that the ink will not pass through them when it is applied, yet large enough for air to escape when it is being printed onto the shirt.<\/p>\n<p>The rubber stencil sheet is placed on top of the stretched mesh screen. Remember, this stencil will be what holds your design as you print it on your garment.<\/p>\n<p>The squeegee blade is inserted into a channel in between two sides of the wooden bar, keeping it secure while at work. The thickness of the blade determines<\/p>\n<p>First, a little history. Silkscreening is a printing process where ink is forced through a mesh, or silkscreen, onto the surface of what you are printing on. It is used to print all sorts of items, and has been in use for over 1,000 years.<\/p>\n<p>The process of applying ink to a shirt through the use of a silk screen dates back to the 1920s. In that decade, a man named Jacob Davis and his partner in the Reno Turndown Shirt Company noticed that many of their customers were dissatisfied with their shirts&#8217; durability after repeated washings. He came up with an idea for using rubber-based ink which was &#8220;resistant to cracking and fading.&#8221; Unfortunately for him, his partner kept all knowledge about this new ink a secret until he sold his share of the company to him without notice. This new ink became known as &#8220;durability&#8221; and it allowed him to sell more shirts at higher prices than ever before.<\/p>\n<p>In 1929, Jacob Davis&#8217;s company had grown and he was able to hire a man named Earl Riskey as an administrator. Mr. Riskey saw potential in switching from a flat printing method (where all colors are printed at once) to the silkscreen method because it allowed him to<\/p>\n<p>What is screen printing? Screen printing is a process where you print a design onto a shirt using a stencil and a specially prepared silk screen (the stencil). Silk screening is the most popular way of printing on shirts, t-shirts and other garments because it is affordable and the printed image lasts for many washes.<\/p>\n<p>Screen printing has been around for decades and used by millions of people all over the world. If you enjoy customising your own clothing or have an interest in screen printing then this article will guide you through the process from start to finish.<\/p>\n<p>What is Screen Printing? Screen printing uses a stencil to block out parts of an image with ink to create an image on clothing. The stencil can be made from many different materials such as; plastic, paper, Mylar or acetate.<\/p>\n<p>Screen Printing is also known as Silk Screen Printing because in the past the stencils were made from silk. Today they are made from synthetic materials which offer better durability and washability than silk. You can print with one or two colours \u2013 if only one colour is used it is known as single colour print, whereas if two colours are used it is called 2 colour print.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to print with more than 2 colours then you need special equipment<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JbmI92sRZKI?autoplay=1&#038;mute=1\"><\/iframe><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LB__fEeO6no?autoplay=1&#038;mute=1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The silkscreen printing process is used to print on a variety of surfaces, including clothing and paper. This guide will help you understand the basic steps in the screen printing process. In this guide, the silk screening process will be explained for beginners. This guide will show you the steps required to create your own [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65412,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65410\/revisions\/65412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}