Screen Printing - Day 1

Shirts All in a Row

First & foremost, I want to thank my rock-star assistants, Ridicathlete Rick Petzold, Ridicassociates Kelly Renn & Evan Sanchez, and newly coined Ridicallies Irena Fonorow & Tom Tallman. Couldn't have done it without you!

Screen Printing

The first day of screen printing went swimmingly. It was a little chilly, but we toughed it out and managed to print the front of the "Team Rick" tees, and the first layer on the back of the "Team Jim" tees. Kelly, Evan, Rick & myself all had a go at printing. We all needed a few tries to get the hang of it, but once we had it down we were golden. Rick also kept us on task with some quality control, especially concerning the "Team Rick" tees. The process took about 4 hours.

Evan, Rick & I also started on the front of the "Team Jim" and back of the "Team Rick" tees, but by 5pm it was too cold and we were all a little loopy. When we finally decided to call it quits, Evan dropped the hose while rinsing a screen; it landed on the handle and gave us all a nice solid spritz before he realized what had happened. It was definitely the perfect giggling ending to a productive & fun day.

Screen Creation

Before we could move forward with the t-shirt printing, I was charged with the task of purchasing supplies & creating screens. I went to Blick Art Materials in Center City, Philadelphia for paints and screen design materials. The store is beautiful, with a friendly, helpful staff. I rounded out my supplies search at my local Goodwill, for some frames & sheer material. The cashier gave me a student discount, and rung up most the frames at the lowest price possible.

The screens were constructed by stretching sheer fabric over a frame, using an industrial staple gun to secure it as tightly as possible. To transfer the images to the screens, I used the Drawing Fluid/Screen Filler method. The printing image is painted on the screen using Drawing Fluid (blue); once dry, the entire screen is coated in Screen Filler (red). After the Screen Filler dries, a quick blast of cold water washes away the Drawing Fluid, and the image is the only open part of the screen. It's like magic! This method is a little time consuming, but best for the resources I had available.

I'll be finishing up the final screens tonight, and have a marathon of screen printing planned for tomorrow. A busy weekend for sure, but well worth it.

Thanks again to everyone who came out!