Hah, does anyone have a backup of shirt printing 101?

[MyAcademy]

If not, lets get that shit stickied again!

[mmmmmmmmmmbrother]

if there is a huge interest i could do somthing to do with actually printing, with photos and shit. like a brief tutorial, my setup is as ghetto as it gets too.

[n4t1v3]

I have it in PDF form. I'll post it up in a bit. m...brother, I'm interested in that, I can afford ghetto :D

[common1]

If not, lets get that shit stickied again!

yo academy here is the first post of it.

FIRST off. everyone wants to have their own clothing company. its not going to happen yo. if you REally want to make shirts, you should not go into photoshop and make a whole bunch of designs without knowing what your doing, post the designs on hypebeast and ask peoples opinion (sorry buddy).

SECOND, if you have a good design in mind, and just want one shirt, that’s stupid. you’ll have to be prepared to spend upwards of 100 for a shirt. even if you have a good design in mind and want 20 shirts done, its still going to be ridiculous. this is of course disregarding the fact that some of you may have money coming out your asses, since i dont. if you dont have a grand to blow on shirts you probably wont sell, then you’ll have to do it the hard way, which also happens to be the right way.

IM only going to say what needs to be said to get everything together. there are good other resources on the net and in your city on technique once you have everything together.




SCREEN PRINTING TSHIRTS:WHAT YOU NEED

FIRST THINGS FIRST- you need a place to rock this shit. your room wont really cut it. garage or basement is money. i made due with a medium sized table and some pipes in the ceiling to hang shirts. if you dont have a space to do this, either wait till summer and get flies in your ink, or keep dreaming.

SCREEN-no way? i think the most common size is 48x24. you can go bigger or smaller i guess, but this size is not too big and not too small. there are wood and metal frames, aluminum being the most common and the cheapest and then best. the thread count will determine how fine the mesh is. i think for paper printing you use 1000-2000, but for cloth 100-200 is the best. i think i bought my screens for around 50-60 CAN each.

SHIRTS-i guess maybe just buy a roll of scrap fabric or something to play around at first. you should be able to find that mad cheap. from there maybe go to hooking up any old tees that friends dont want. wholesale shirts are the next step of course. look for middle men in the tshirt game. these guys buy huge quantities from the shirt companies and re-sell them, still wholesale, but like per box, not per truck. i think i got 3 boxes (S,M,L) with 120 shirts in each box for like 400$CAN, you do that math. its dope too because if you need a G white shirt you just walk to your basement.

INKS-start with water colour, for sure. its cheaper and way easier to work with. and it doesn’t suck that bad. i think the best set up to begin with is white tees and black/blue/red/green ink. you cant really do layers overtop of each other, but for one colour designs, water colour is money. the next step up, way up, is plastisol ink which is what the big boys use. is has to be heat set really fucking hot, and i know for a fact that a paint heat gun, or an oven, doesn’t cut it. i have an OG limited edition shirt with brown marks all over it though, its sick. after its heat set, its soft and bendable like sort of rubbery, just like all the shirts you own.

EMULSION-this is what puts the design on the screen. there is emulsion that you can hand paint on but that’s wack. i use photo emulsion, which you spread on, blagh blaghhttp://www.ehow.com/how_10855_expose-photo-emulsion.html.
you also need emulsion remover.

TOOLS- you need to make up a little stand with screen clamp/hinges (which you can buy at a screen store for like 12$) you need a good squeegee sp.? like a billion clothes hangers masking tape, and seriously like a thousand newspapers.




basically its a lot of fucking work and money. you should have about 500 to barely get started, and 1500 if you want to do a run. you can get around the price and workload though; get a buddy who’s down, split it etc.

actually all i wanted to say is that making a design on your computer is 1% of what it takes.

if there is more interest, maybe we who print can team up and make a sick tutorial with flicks. but for now just let me know what im missing.

[MyAcademy]

Thanks dude, just lookin to get all that content back to get this thing stickied.
And brother, pictures would be nice. Thats a good idea.
Next time I screen something up I'll try to snap some.

[n4t1v3]

FIRST off. everyone wants to have their own clothing company. its not going to happen yo. if you REally want to make shirts, you should not go into photoshop and make a whole bunch of designs without knowing what your doing, post the designs on hypebeast and ask peoples opinion (sorry buddy).

SECOND, if you have a good design in mind, and just want one shirt, that’s stupid. you’ll have to be prepared to spend upwards of 100 for a shirt. even if you have a good design in mind and want 20 shirts done, its still going to be ridiculous. this is of course disregarding the fact that some of you may have money coming out your asses, since i dont. if you dont have a grand to blow on shirts you probably wont sell, then you’ll have to do it the hard way, which also happens to be the right way.

IM only going to say what needs to be said to get everything together. there are good other resources on the net and in your city on technique once you have everything together.




SCREEN PRINTING TSHIRTS:WHAT YOU NEED

FIRST THINGS FIRST- you need a place to rock this shit. your room wont really cut it. garage or basement is money. i made due with a medium sized table and some pipes in the ceiling to hang shirts. if you dont have a space to do this, either wait till summer and get flies in your ink, or keep dreaming.

SCREEN-no way? i think the most common size is 48x24. you can go bigger or smaller i guess, but this size is not too big and not too small. there are wood and metal frames, aluminum being the most common and the cheapest and then best. the thread count will determine how fine the mesh is. i think for paper printing you use 1000-2000, but for cloth 100-200 is the best. i think i bought my screens for around 50-60 CAN each.

SHIRTS-i guess maybe just buy a roll of scrap fabric or something to play around at first. you should be able to find that mad cheap. from there maybe go to hooking up any old tees that friends dont want. wholesale shirts are the next step of course. look for middle men in the tshirt game. these guys buy huge quantities from the shirt companies and re-sell them, still wholesale, but like per box, not per truck. i think i got 3 boxes (S,M,L) with 120 shirts in each box for like 400$CAN, you do that math. its dope too because if you need a G white shirt you just walk to your basement.

INKS-start with water colour, for sure. its cheaper and way easier to work with. and it doesn’t suck that bad. i think the best set up to begin with is white tees and black/blue/red/green ink. you cant really do layers overtop of each other, but for one colour designs, water colour is money. the next step up, way up, is plastisol ink which is what the big boys use. is has to be heat set really fucking hot, and i know for a fact that a paint heat gun, or an oven, doesn’t cut it. i have an OG limited edition shirt with brown marks all over it though, its sick. after its heat set, its soft and bendable like sort of rubbery, just like all the shirts you own.

EMULSION-this is what puts the design on the screen. there is emulsion that you can hand paint on but that’s wack. i use photo emulsion, which you spread on, blagh blaghhttp://www.ehow.com/how_10855_expose-photo-emulsion.html.
you also need emulsion remover.

TOOLS- you need to make up a little stand with screen clamp/hinges (which you can buy at a screen store for like 12$) you need a good squeegee sp.? like a billion clothes hangers masking tape, and seriously like a thousand newspapers.




basically its a lot of fucking work and money. you should have about 500 to barely get started, and 1500 if you want to do a run. you can get around the price and workload though; get a buddy who’s down, split it etc.

actually all i wanted to say is that making a design on your computer is 1% of what it takes.

if there is more interest, maybe we who print can team up and make a sick tutorial with flicks. but for now just let me know what im missing.

1234 56 789

[n4t1v3]

For the record, you don't need to go buying 360 shirts to get yourself started off.
You can get a wholesale account with www.americanapparel.net (if you're persistent) and their "minimum order" (even though they claim not to have one) is something like 12 shirts per box, and itll come out to be way cheaper than $400.

If you're really planning on doing a bunch of designs, you can make your own frames by either buying your own wood and a canvas stretcher, or by hooking up a frame that allows you to re-roll your own fabric. Of course the mesh count on fabric depends on what you're doing the print on. Mesh counts between 100 and 160 get paper done real well, and you have to fuck around with mesh count on shirts. The higher the mesh count, the more detail (and the less paint) that gets pushed through. Lower mesh count = less detail, more paint (better for big bold designs).

A tip for good ink if you're strapped for cash = acrylic ink and textile medium. You CAN buy fabric printing inks, but good luck getting that shit to show up on a dark colored shirt. If you want to do white on black, hook up some acrylic ink (watered down to about the consistency of yogurt), and then mix in some textile medium. You want a medium paint to medium ratio, definitely nowhere near 1:1. Sometimes I do 1:2 paint/medium or even more.

You don't need to do emulsion, you can do freezer paper stencils, or screen filler freehand.

If you're doing emulsion, you're going to need to pick up a scoop-coater. If you're new, I seriously reccomend getting a coater the same size as your screen. Once you get a good steady hand going, you can just use one size for everything. I think there are plans to build your own out of aluminum or PVC pipe on the intrawebs somewhere.

Oh, and it makes things a LOT easier if you have a nice table somewhere like brother said. I had my little brother build me a combo light table/cabinet/ironing table kinda thing. Having your own table is totally croosh. It might be some work, but do it. Light table helps a lot, and you can set one up by just jacking some halogen lights and some plexiglass/glass/windshield/whatever. Lights go under clear surface, and you're set. That'll help with emulsion exposure, and tracing/cutting simple stencils and whatnot. I have a cabinet on my table for letting emulsified screens dry, and for storing old designs. Its cool to have all your old shit laying around in one place, lets you look at your progression. =D

As for setting your ink, its a pain in the balls. Especially if you don't have a flash dryer, and I don't. A good (cheap) way to set your average ink is to let it dry, then hit it with an iron. I cover the dry ink with a thin cloth (a different ripped up t-shirt), iron it for 4 minutes, turn the shirt inside out, then do the same shit. Toss it in the dryer, see if the ink cracks, and then you're set.

This shouldn't be at the bottom, but make sure you degrease your screen and shrink your shirt before you start. Seriously, cause no one wants to wash a new shirt they bought only to have the image all distorted and shit, thats a bummer. As for degreasing your screen, its just something you need to do.

And finally, I know I made a post about it a few weeks ago, but for tag removal, you can get a seam ripper on the cheap from a supply store, and then find someone with a digitizer, hook them up with some nylon material, embroider the tags, cut em, and sew em in.

Aaaaand, thats all I can remember right now, a few years worth of screening knowledge. If I remember anything else, I'll post it up. :wink:

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[n4t1v3]

Here is my tips

Tip 1) Hand screening is easier then you think, get yourself a kit found at most art stores and read the instructions, i cannot stress reading the instructions enough, that's what they're made for.

Tip 2) Do your own research and don't expect people to hand over everything they know so easily, search engines like Google and Vivisimo have tons and tons of information if you look carefully.

Tip 3) Start small. Start with a one colour design and become comfortable with it before even thinking of multi colour and layered prints.

Tip 4) You will make mistakes. Your screens will come out overburned or under burned so I recommend getting photo emulsion remover if it doesn't come in your kit.

Tip 5) Screenprinting doesn't really cost that much especially if you wait for sales and stuff. Check out art stores near colleges/universitys as they have the best deals for everything art related. For the shirts, it can take some searching but if you want wholesale prices you will need a business liscence.

Tip 6) Have fun no matter how hard it gets, if you don't have fun during the process then it will show in your work.

1234 56 789

[n4t1v3]

for you guys doing your own screening:
what kind of ink/paint are you using? ive been harrassing everyone i know who does it, and they all say a "flash dryer is a must" but then admit theres certain paint/inks you can just hit with a nice sized air gun/overgrown blow dryer and an iron and it will be fine, yet dont know what kind of ink it is?

I'm poor so I'm using the Fabric Ink that came with my kit, 'Speedball' I think.


the speedball ink is water based. its easier to work with andcan be heatset by an iron. plastosol is somthing else based, and you need a flash heater for that.



anyone knows that the screen print kit from art store?
do they work actually?

I use the items from those kits almost exclusively (i make my own screens) but they are really good deals for black ink/emulsion/screen.

Thats the jist of it. If theres any other pertinent info I left out from the thread, please post.

Some people can't get back to HB 1.0 I'm assumming.
I hope all the info gets saved from there and is turned into a guide. Theres a wealth of info on HB1.0 forums.

[hasejun1985]

thanks guys

sticky!!

[goschn]

if there is a huge interest i could do somthing to do with actually printing, with photos and shit. like a brief tutorial, my setup is as ghetto as it gets too.

hell yeah! I think it could help some people ...

[IneedMoney©]

is there any cheaper way i can do this .... cause i have no type of money and the largest amount of money i can possibly get is a 100........... im guessing no

but if any of yall do this holler at me ...... im thinkin of someone want to team up with me to make this stuff ......

[DUM]

You can get a kit for about $50..which has the most basic supplies.

[haZy]

1) use a lamp with a shade turned upside dwn and foil inside as exposure light

2) use a table leg rack (the ones like the exam tables at skool or sumthing) as a support to put your screen and print on (pic below)
http://img52.imageshack.us/my.php?image=20au.jpg
http://img67.imageshack.us/my.php?image=exposure2xt.jpg
http://img52.imageshack.us/my.php?image=i17os.jpg

3) use hair dryer or heat gun to dry the ink if your doing more than one layer of colours

4) to cure it (set the ink in place) use an iron

P.s. plastisol inks, you will need a proper flash curer/dryer because they only set at high temperature as the post earlier on says

Hope this helps for saving on sum money......

[thelion1856]

where do i buy the heaters or stuff i need to dry pastisol ink? also more info on getting the design on to the emultion screen. thanks

[mafestobb]

I was browsing through AC moore the other day looking at fabric stuff and i found this computer printer friendly cotton paper type stuff. It's cotton but it's backed by paper so you can print stuff onto the cotton and i was thinking it would be great for tags. it was 10 bucks for 12 sheets or something. I got it at A.C. Moore, definitely worth checking out Imo.

[haZy]

heaters for plastisol cost quite a bit...... start with neptune ink or something, it can be iron dried and works great on light materials and for starters. dont; use plastisol until you can use neptune and other forms of inks.

[mafestobb]

just curious does a heat press work for inks that don't get set with an iron? because my brother has one and i was wondering if i could just use that in place of a flash dryer

[GORILLARMS]

Check this link out ,HOW TO SILKSCREEN
http://www.usscatastrophe.com/zettwoch/silkscreen.html

[dblockdosmil]

Damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that the best tutorial ive seen only if they had on for all over prints

[DUM]

I always thought all over prints were done before the construction of the garment..when all the pieces are just flat.

I have a question though, I just burned an image on my screen...and the image is very visble on the screen, just how it should look but ink isn't passing through some places it should. Is the photo emulsion remover precise enough to remove these spots or will it blotch and fuck it up? Do I have to reburn?

[mafestobb]

^^^ what i do is use the photo emulsion remover as precisely as i can then if i fuck up i just use a bit of screen filler. And can you please inform me on all over prints without cutting and sewing, i really want to know

[DUM]

Thanks i'll try that. I wouldn't know how to do it without cut n sew other than I guess just printing each part...would be kinda hard though for some parts.

[mafestobb]

Isn't that how The Hundreds did theirs? or did they cut and sew?

[DUM]

Bobby said they didnt cutnsew...it'd be too expensive.

[mafestobb]

^^^^ yeah that's what im saying, let's see if we're lucky enough for him to pop in here and let us know.......

[brice]

i heard cut & sew runs in the 5 figures for printing on a fabric lot? is that true?

and bobby or orisue or anyone, where do you guys pick up your plain colored t's???? PM ME! i guess i'll have to go sweatshop hunting.

[Gyromite]

The cheapest way possible.

For heads who want the cheapest way possible to do a 1 colour joint. Build a frame out of wood, make sure it is secure and stable. Pick up some fabric from your fabric store, a mesh nylon will work. Remeber ink has to go through. the stuff those old drapes are made of will work. Use a staple gun to make the nylon taught on the frame, two man job.

Instead of doing the photo emulsion way (which is the easiest) you can buy this acetate film http://www.misterart.com/store/view.cfm?group_id=650&store=001. Basically, you cut a stensil out on this film with an exacto and then using acetate you burn it onto the fabric. Its really tuff, and hard to get real small pieces to be clean but can be done if you know what you are doing. Then buy some textile ink and a screen printing squeegee and then your set to screen.

Run the ink lightly over the stencil once, to load it and then again with pressue over your garment to make it sink in. Let the ink dry and then use an iron on both sides to set the ink.


This is the ghetto way, and can lead to ghetto results, doing the photo emulsion way is much better, last way longer and isnt to much more money. The dope thing about having your own screen is that you can screen anything, from windows to boxes to whatever you want.

http://speedballart.com/lessonspsb.asp
http://www.finaledesign.com