Sunday, September 14, 2008

T-shirt silkscreening materials

Designing T-shirt is one of my favorite things to do. I love printing my own designs and have it printed on my shirt. It just gives me self-satisfaction and allows me to express myself . I want to share to you the things needed to start printing your own shirt.

This materials are for photographic emulsion method:

T-shirt
Choosing your t-shirt is important. First, have a plain shirt. Then consider what type of fabric it is. I recommend for beginners to used cotton shirts. You may also want colored shirts depending what suits your design.

Silkscreen
This is a woven mesh used to support ink blocking. Mostly, this is available on department stores and it has already a wooden frame.


Squeegee
A squeegee is used to spread ink evenly across the back of a stencil or on the surface of the silkscreen.

Textile Paint
This is ideal for fabric printing. Ordinary, wetlook, emboss are some common types of textile paint. Ordinary paints are best for white shirt. Wetlook paints are for colored shirts, you should apply a white base before you print it to your colored shirt. If you want your print to have an emboss look you can use emboss paint. But you could also try other textile paints.

Stencil
Stencil is like the template of your design. This is the one you're going to embed into your silkscreen with the use of a chemical called emulsion. It's like the negative of your photo.

Photo Emulsion
This is the chemical I was talking about. This is a light sensitive substance that is use to coat the silkscreen. I do it by mixing an emulsion and a sensitiser.

Spray
Any medium spray will do.

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