More Photo Screens

• August 7th, 2005 • • how-to, screen printing •

Busy weekend! Some of my girlfriends and I like to periodically get together for a “Craft Day” where we make stuff. One of my friends really wanted to use the new exposure unit I rigged up, and another wanted to make candles, as she was running low. (That and I had a huge bag of old crayons.) I’ll happily go over the candle bit later; for now I’ll share how the screen unit works.

Please note that until the screen is ready to be developed and subsequently to be washed out, the room was dark.

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1) The coated screen sitting around drying. Two mistakes were made on this screen.One, the coating is uneven: thick spots have the potential to cause problems when washing out the screen. There should be a nice, thin coat so that when the image is developing it all develops evenly. The thick coat won’t develop at the same time as the thin coat, so when wash out time comes, thick areas won’t wash out!Two, I put a fan directly in front of the screen. Normally I use fans for drying everything. This time there was an unforeseen problem with the fan blowing dust and small bugs (!) onto the screen’s surface. Fortunately these didn’t land on any parts that would be difficult to fill in later on, but the bug chunks definitely cause uneven coating.

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2) Putting the screen on the unit. I have an old file box the screen sits on. Ideally this should be black, but eh, I’m cheap. This photo doesn’t show it off well but the box sits inside the screen, while the image will be placed on the back of the screen. What we’re doing here is minimizing light that comes in on the wrong side of the screen.

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3) So, what kind of image do you need? Since all we have is the cheapo home setup with 100 watt bulbs, the image needs to be 100% black on something like an overhead transparency. (A higher wattage would likely help to penetrate an image on tracing paper, but remember, I’m cheap. New bulbs would mean new lamps, and that means money!) When I say 100% black, I mean it! Don’t use your home inkjet, the ink isn’t opaque. Go down to your local copy shop and make identical copies onto three separate transparency sheets. This way you can physically layer them. (Running one sheet through typically doesn’t work well; copiers will misalign your image.)The first time, the image should be really simple. My friend had never done this before, so she picked a really simple egg-man picture. The lines are really crisp and clean, with little room for error. This way, it’s easier to see what the screen should look like in all its stages.

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4) Developing the picture my friend found. Filebox, screen, image, glass, fan. The glass goes on top of the image to keep it from moving around, and keeps minimal area between the screen and the image. (Thus keeping light from going in between it.) Rather than blow small bugs onto the screen in this step, it keeps everything slightly cooler. (Heat will develop the screen as well as light. Keep the room cool!)

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5) It done be developed! It was hard to see so in the dark, but the developing solution is actually bright green before it goes under the light. The bit that remained under the image stayed bright green while the rest turned more of an aqua color. This shot shows the “bugs” (har har, get it?) that occurred while the screen was drying. The big white spots are where the lil’ guys landed.

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6) Washing out using my snappy setup I made! The development was nice and clean; the image washed out well.

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7) Almost there, just a bit left. The screen is nice and clear. Fortunately, the “buggy” areas aren’t causing too many problems. All in all, this screen came out really well. It should be interesting to see how my friend’s image prints up.
Whew! All that work, and I don’t even get to print the screen. Humph! Guess that means I better get on top of ordering some new material for those old screens I got. Which means I need to get some money, which means I need a steady job, which means…

 

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