| This handy guide will allow you to quickly learn the | | | | 7. BURNING A SCREEN. |
| basic terms and materials needed to screen print. | | | | This is the process of using a halogen light (or very |
| 1. YOUR ARTWORK. | | | | high wattage light bulb) to burn your artwork image |
| This can be a picture, drawing, cartoon, or words | | | | to the silkscreen. In areas where the emulsion is kept |
| you want to put on your t-shirt. This is the starting | | | | soft (by your image blocking the light) and is |
| point of screen printing your t-shirt. This can be done | | | | eventually washed out of the screen, the ink will pass |
| in many different ways using many different | | | | through to produce your print. |
| software packages. What is key is that the art must | | | | 8. HALOGEN OR HIGH WATTAGE LIGHT BULB. |
| be done in vector format. The the main programs | | | | These lights are used to permanently dry the |
| professionals (and amateurs) use are Adobe | | | | emulsion onto the screen, so no ink can flow through |
| Illustrator and Corel Draw. | | | | to the screen. It's used to burn the artwork image |
| 2. SEPARATIONS or “SEPS”. | | | | onto the screen, so only holes where the artwork |
| Once your art is created, each color must be printed | | | | blocked the hardening of the emulsion as in 7 above, |
| on clear film called separations. These will be used to | | | | ink can easily flow through onto your t-shirt creating |
| burn the images for each color into the screen. | | | | your design. |
| 3. THE SCREEN. | | | | 9. SQUEEGEE. |
| This is a square metal (usually aluminum) or wooden | | | | This is a tool with a flat rubber blade on one side |
| frame with a screen made of mesh material very | | | | used to pull ink evenly across the screen mesh. |
| tightly stretched over it. It will be used to burn your | | | | 10. PLASTISOL. |
| seps into and to print on the actual shirt. | | | | The type of ink used for screen printing. The ink has |
| 4. MESH. | | | | unique properties, for example, it will not dry even |
| This is the material which is stretched over the silk | | | | when left out until it is cured under a heat source of |
| screen frame itself, (as in number 3 above). This | | | | 320 degrees. |
| mesh material, as its name suggests, has holes in it | | | | 11. FLASH UNIT. |
| that can vary in size. The holes allow ink to flow | | | | A device used to dry ink enough to print another |
| through onto your fabric, in varying quantities | | | | color on top of it, but not enough to completely cure |
| depending on your t-shirt design. Different screens | | | | it. It is essential when printing colors on top of each |
| have different mesh counts. The lower the number, | | | | other. |
| the more ink it allows in. | | | | 12. PALLET. |
| 5.EMULSION. | | | | A piece of rounded wood that you place the shirt on |
| This is a substance that when put into the screen, | | | | to be printed. There are various sizes to fit various |
| and dried in a dark room it blocks the mesh, | | | | jobs. |
| preventing the ink flowing through onto your fabric. | | | | 13. AUTO PRESS or “AUTO”. |
| In areas where the emulsion hardens (by exposure | | | | This screen printing press is a very large piece of |
| to bright light), the screen is blocked so no ink can | | | | equipment that once set up properly, will print up to |
| pass through. This is imperative to ensure that | | | | 14 colors automatically. All you have to do is put the |
| nothing other than the image you intend to print | | | | shirts on the pallets and take them off. |
| appears on the final print. | | | | 14. CONVEYOR DRYER. |
| 6. COAT THE SCREEN. | | | | A large dryer that has a conveyor belt on it so shirts |
| This simply means putting the emulsion onto the | | | | pass through it and then out the other end. |
| screen before you begin to burn your artwork to the | | | | I hope you find this helpful! |
| silkscreen. See number 5. | | | | |