CHS Screen Printing
A collective of photos and videos that correspond to the little red book.
Note to the Reader
Dear Reader,
If you are opening this book(website in this case but read the damn book) you should have already noticed the fine craft that is this book itself. If you haven’t, do that now… I’ll wait. After you admire my work, know that by committing to screen printing, you have signed up for copious amounts of stress and mountains of work, balanced only by the ability to escape almost any class at the beck and call of one, Steven Russell. He will say that he doesn’t have the power, but he does. The only teacher no one messes with is Mrs. Chandler. Take this time before you are fully committed to reflect on your relationship with your teachers, specifically Russell and Lederle, Mrs. Vita, and Powers. They hold your success in their hands. If they decide to make your life hard, you will fail. End of story. You need them, so start sucking up now.
This book contains everything that I have learned over the last three years. I have gone through the painstaking process of trial and a lot of error, that has lead me to the point where, now, I am able to share my knowledge in this truly masterful book. This may be everything that I know, but there is still a lot of trial and error that you will need to go through, and it’s unavoidable. If you do in fact end up reading this entire heckin book, get a life. While helpful, there will be a lot of dull writing because this is for the Palshaw English 4 capstone, which I really hope he still has when you are reading this because this project was really fun.
Anyways, DO NOT PICK THIS BOOK UP FOR THE FIRST TIME AS A SENIOR. It will ruin your life and you will hate yourself. You need a full year to ease into it and adjust. Preferably you should start as a sophomore or junior. If you are an incredibly mature freshman and have the approval of both Russell and Lederle you may attempt.
Do not go into this expecting to fit all printing and other things into just class time. I don’t care how fast you work or how many periods you ditch to spend working on it. You will need to be in the art room well past when school ends. Not everyday, although that would be better, but there will be a handful of times when you start cleaning up a 7:30 and leave at 8:15.
If you have found that I have missed something or part of it is now irrelevant, please change it. This is a working document and should grow as screen printing at CHS changes. So, go forth and make some tee shirts.
Sincerely,
Lucy Shelley Class of 2019
Here's How it Works
This is the design from concept to the final.
Here is a video of how to apply the emulsion but its best if you have your predecessor really teach you how to do it.
The box on the left is the light tight box the screens dry in and the one on the right are fresh screens.
Should be 8 minutes.
You need to lift the cord so that it doesn't get stuck to the glass.
The fabric should be tight like this.
This is the process of burning a screen.
After burning the screen you need to wash out the part that was not exposed to the light.
This is explained in the Multiple colors section.
This is how to line up and move the screen. Use the tape to center it.
Here are some videos and time-lapses that show how to actually print.
Design
Design is everything! You should preferably know something about design when entering this endeavor but if you don’t, find someone else to make the designs. Russell is a good resource for this, not only because he can draw excellent designs but because he will know the perfect person whose style matches the look you're going for.
While there are endless possibilities for designs, there are quite a few limitations put in place by the nature of the beast. Here is my comprehensive list of do’s and don'ts for design:
-DO NOT BE CLICHE! This is just a personal preference and is totally not at all mandatory, unless you want me to come back and kick your ass. Just so we’re clear cliche includes: anything that is mainstream (brands, styles, phrases), Meme’s, anything relating to any tv show, movie, celebrity, band/singer, or fad. There are two exceptions to this. You may use a style or reference if it follows the appropriation guidelines (has a specific purpose and has been changed enough to be considered original, consult Lederle). Example: this year the art club logo is Russell’s face as the Obey Giant
-Everything must be in black and white. This means limited (using halftones*) to no shading. Each color, if doing multiple colors, must be on a separate screen. More on that later.
-Make sure that if it is a design adapted from a drawing, that it has been fully cleaned up with no grey or shading. This can be done with a simple levels adjustment or it may be more detailed. Just know what you're getting yourself into.
-Lines must be thick enough that they show up on the screen, and as you use the screen the emulsion will degrade, so make sure you account for that in your design. The more simple and clear you design is, the better.
-I mentioned this earlier but I’ll say it again, BLACK AND WHITE ONLY, NO GREYS OR SKETCHY AREAS
-Be careful with fonts. It there is an area where the line is really thin there is a rick that it won’t show up on the screen and your letters will be wack.
People
People are my least favorite part of the job. I would take cleaning screens any day over dealing with people. The easiest way to handle it is to be direct and mostly honest. I say mostly because there are some times when the truth is not what they want to hear so they don’t hear it (Russell falls into this a lot so be carefull). Russell and I are currently working on a solution to the mess that has been ordering tee shirts, but it may not be accomplished for another couple years. I am not going to write about the system I have right now because it’s a mess and it will change.
People expect soooooo much more than you can actually give them. Don’t feel bad for letting them down. Our current problem is telling people no. You can’t say no when the robotics team is out of options because they got the tee shirts three days before the competition. When you say yes to this though, you are the cause of your own stress and will be be screening shirts until 8 pm. You need to set strong ground rules at the beginning of the year and be brutal about sticking to them. If you stay even slightly, the ground will fall from underneath you and you will die. (Edit: We did manage to say no to APLAC.)
Other people in the art classes will want to help and act really excited, but they just think it’s cool and want to be a part of it, but as soon as you ask them to do any real work they are out. It’s best for only one person, you, to do everything. Doin it solo creates a chain of responsibility that keeps everything running. As soon as you delegate, you no longer know if what you delegated is going to get done, and there are a lot of moving parts that need to come together. It’s good to have a runner but you’ll end up doing a lot of back and forth between Russell and Lederle. When it comes to the actual screening, get some friends together and teach them how to do it and then you can trade off so it doesn’t get monotonous and it’s actually really fun.
Russell
You need to tell Russell everything. This doesn't work unless you communicate absolutely everything with him. It just doesn’t work. He has a tendency to say no immediately to everything but most often if you ask again in like 20 minutes he’ll moan and groan but he’ll make it happen. When he yells at you, because he will yell at you, just know that he’s not mad he just likes to yell. Hopefully there is a better system in place where all communication from clubs and teachers goes through him but if a teacher or student comes to you asking for shirts, send them to Russell. Speaking from experience, the less people involved in ordering shirts, the better. Be careful leaving things out in his room because his Art 1 students are like toddlers.
Lederle
Lederle is an AMAZING resource. Her dad was a screen printer and she has a lot of experience with it so ask her all your burning questions. She has an amazing eye for design, obviously, so run all designs through her. You will have to print the design in her room at the very least. As the screen printer you will need to buy things. Lederle handles art club’s money which is what you need to go through to get things bought. Be really good friends with the art club president or be the art club president, and you should be fine.
Supplies
-Fat blue tape
-Spray adhesive
-Emulsion- I prefer the blue stuff that you don’t need to activate, but if somewhere down the line you find that something else works better, by all means use that, currently the stuff we have you need to use the activator to make it work, this will turn it green, ONLY USE THIS STUFF IF ITS GREEN, I have made too many screens with the blue stuff, it really really doesn’t work
-Screens
-Screen opener (green bottle) do not be fooled, this is only for ink, it will seal the emulsion onto the screen, which is some cases is helpful
-Screen cleaner- it should be in a spray bottle that says engine cleaner, there is a gallon jug of it somewhere and you shouldn’t need to buy more for like a really long time because it’s super concentrated
-Painters tape- for centering
-Plastic- to print on
-Squeegees, emulsion spreaders, and the metal spatula things that you use to smear ink (although paint stirrers work just as well if you don’t break them)
-A light tight box and or dark room
-A light table or other reliable light source
-Optional- a screen press machine
Tie Dye
Tie Dye is cool but it makes Russell really pissy. Allow an extra week in the process for tie dying and you should be fine. What I have done is screen them and put them directly into the soda ash to soak overnight then do it the next day. Be friends with Mrs. French and Borek and they will let you wash them at school. I’ll also include an order of colors because Russell sucks at picking colors. I think it’s the forest green that we don’t like but other than that the rest are fine. We should be doing an order soon that should last a while.
Printing Rhythm
Eventually you find a pattern of movements that allow you to speed through shirts. I’m going to be honest here, screening is a one person job. Having a few people to take turns is great for a large amount of shirts, but you can really only have one person screening at a time. What is awesome is when you get a bunch of friends to hang out with you while you screen. You can pump the jams, eat a lot of snacks, and have a really good time.
Cleaning
Cleaning is very important but, not going to lie, it sucks. First take the tape off and then wipe off as much of the ink as you can with paper towels making sure you be careful you don’t get it all over what is under the screen. I suggest you wear gloves because it will stain your hands. Before you spray the ink with the ink cleaner you have to remove the emulsion because the chemical that is used to get rid of the ink actually seals the emulsion onto the screen (this can be helpful sometimes though). Use the “engine cleaner” on the bottom of the screen with a sponge to remove it. The longer the emulsion has been on the screen, the harder it is to get off. Once the emulsion is gone you can use the screen opener to get the remaining ink off. Go outside for this and consider wearing a mask, because this stuff is gnarly. Then you should have a clean screen ready for reuse.
Alternatives
If the dryer breaks then you can use a heat gun, but that really sucks, or you can use the mobile dryer thing but I don’t know how to use it. You can also, instead of using the machine, put cardboard in the shirt (I did this on bags) and have someone hold the screen down while you push the ink through.
Edit: I now know how to use the flash dryer, and it’s really easy. All you have to do is plug it in and set the correct height. That’s literally it.
If you find that you want to do this over the summer or want to do more advanced things than what I have outlined in this handy-dandy booklet, here are some books that I have found inspirational. Also Lederle has some small single presses. They’re not perfect but totally functional. If you want to do tee’s with it see the alternatives section. Russell has a ton of books that talk all about all of this stuff but the best way to figure things out is just to do it. I’ll try to find a spot to put all of them so you can find them easily, but I make no guarantees. Just ask Russell if you're interested.
Multiple Screens
I finally, after three years, feel like I have this in the bag. First off, when you are making the design, try to keep it simple, as this will make your life a hell of a lot easier. With the Art Club design, I was able to make what’s called a trap, which is basically overlapping the colors so that you get nice crisp lines. Lederle can help you do this. I made the red box slightly longer than it would be if it lined up perfectly, and then printed the black over the red. Along with clean lines this makes it easier to line up. When you line the screens up, tape the plastic down to the board and center them where you want to be printing them. I would suggest printing dead center so you have a good idea when you put the shirt on. Line them up with the various nobs highlighted in the photo of the machine. When printing, set the flash dryer up over the opposite board from the one you are printing on, place a shirt on each board and print the lighter color on both then allow one side to dry under the flash dryer. It shouldn’t take more than like twenty seconds. If it is fully heated up the first one will dry while you print the second one. Spin both the top and bottom so that you have the dry shirt and the black screen in front of you. If you have the screens lined up properly, you should be able to just screen this one and then place it on the dryer, then screen the other one and place that one on the dryer, but if the screen is off you can mess with it until its spot on or just eyeball it.
Edit: When you have a pocket design and a back design that isn't too big you can put them on the same screen then tape it normally leaving both designs uncovered. Then you tape over the pocket design or the back design, screen one side of the shirts, then take the tape off and tape over the other design on the bottom of the screen. Do a test screening just to make sure you have no leaks
Final Notes
Thank you for keeping me legacy alive, and continuing to keep this unique opportunity living and breathing. Screening was the first thing at CHS that I really found a passion for and could throw myself into. I would not be the person I am today without this opportunity. I moan and groan a lot about it but I love it and hope to continue through art school.
Follow me on my journey through college and beyond! Also if you have questions Russell has my contact.