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Welcome to SilkscreenTutorials.com, your online guide to DIY screen printing!

Whether you are a complete beginner or have already started your journey into the world of screen printing, this guide will provide all the necessary information to get you started quickly, producing professional results regardless of your budget.

Screen printing can be an excellent means to generate extra income or become a full-time profession. Whether you are bursting with creative ideas, looking for a new hobby or seeking to build up a practice servicing others, it requires very little capital to get started.

Years ago, when I first started to develop an interest in screen printing, I ended up spending a lot of time and money learning how to produce professional results. This site is the resource guide I wish I was given at the very beginning. It would have saved me thousands of dollars and most importantly, time that I could have spent creating and printing.

I realize that on a limited budget, some of the “standard equipment” required for the silkscreen process is not necessarily within the reach of most hobbyists and crafters seeking to “test the waters”. Luckily, there are many ways to reproduce professional results with inexpensive methods that are perfect for those with a little DIY (do-it-yourself) affinity.

In addition, the site will feature plans such as how to build an exposure unit and step-by-step instructions for featured screen printing projects like screen printed T-shirts, silkscreen posters and much more.

Screen printing is both and art and a science. Once you learn the basics of screen printing you’ll find a new hobby that can quickly turn into a lifelong passion. I hope that by reading and applying the information in this site, that same passion will be ignited within you.

Good luck and welcome to the world of screen printing!

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Reclaiming The Screen

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Screens can be reused over and over again as long as there are no tears and the mesh retains it’s tension. In order for this to happen, the screen needs to be returned to it’s original, emulsion free state. This process is called reclaiming the screen and it requires the use of chemicals (reclaimer) to [...]

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Screen Printing Tutorial: T-Shirt – Part 2

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  Step 8 - Once you determined that the position is perfect, bring the screen down and place some ink onto the screen. Step 9 – Raise the screen off the shirt and prepare to do a flood stroke. Step 10 – After the flood stroke you are ready to pull your first t-shirt print. Step 11 – [...]

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Screen Printing Tutorial: T-Shirt – Part 1

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T-shirts are the main reason I originally got into screen printing. There are many ways to go about printing t-shirts, depending on your time, how many colors, techniques and budget. If exact registration is not super important, you can lay a t-shirt flat on your printing surface and use the same steps from the paper [...]

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Screen Printing Tutorial: Paper – Part 3

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Step 19 - We are now ready to make some real prints! At this point your screen should be flooded and ready to pull a print. Place the blank paper in the correct position and lower the screen frame. Step 20 - Load your squeegee with some ink and tilt the squeegee in the right angle (45-60 [...]

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Screen Printing Tutorial: Paper – Part 2

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Step 9 – Take your ink and start to lay down a generous amount at the top of the screen. Step 10 – Here’s a view of the ink, fully spread and ready to be pushed through the mesh. Step 11 – Place your squeegee into the screen well, making sure that the entire edge [...]

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Screen Printing Tutorial: Paper – Part 1

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Step 1 – Take a piece of clear acetate and place it on your printing table. The acetate will be used for registration purposes. Step 2 – Tape one side of the acetate to the table using painter’s tape. I find painter’s tape is really easy to work with but you can substitute whatever you [...]

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Screen Preparation: Taping The Screen

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Step 1 – Take your screen printing tape (or packing tape) and begin by covering areas that you do not want ink to go through. In this example we have exposed two designs (ganging) onto a single screen.  Step 2 – Finish taping the design and any other areas of the emulsion that you don’t [...]

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Exposing The Screen: Bottom-Up

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This happens to be the trickiest part of the screen printing process due to the number of variables that can affect the exposure.  After gaining more experience, I realized I had a lot of trouble because I kept changing the variables (i.e. different emulsion types/brands, using vellum vs. transparency film, changing printers with different black [...]

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Coating The Screen: Capillary Film

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Capillary film is emulsion that is adhered to a clear plastic film in the form of a roll or a sheet. The film is applied directly to wet mesh. The capillary action (hence the name) causes the emulsion to stick to the mesh. When the frame is ready for use, the plastic film is peeled [...]

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Coating The Screen: Direct Emulsion

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Coating the screen can sometimes be a tricky process. Uneven coating, bubbles, old emulsion, etc can all lead to terrible results later on. This tutorial will focus on getting a smooth, even coating on your screen using direct emulsion. Direct emulsion consists of diazo-cure, dual-cure or pure photopolymer emulsions. Direct emulsion comes in the form [...]

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Screen Preparation: Degreasing the Screen

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Before the application of any emulsion to the mesh you have to make sure the screen is properly degreased. Is this step necessary? The answer is yes, especially if you have a brand new screen. Degreasing the screen clears out any oils, dirt, dust, etc that make their way to the surface of the mesh [...]

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Creating A Film Positive

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The first step in the process of screen printing is the creation of the film positive. A film positive is artwork (text and/or images) on a transparent or translucent material. For best results the artwork must be opaque enough to block light from exposing the emulsion during the screen exposure process. There are many ways [...]

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Love Birds and Hearts Print

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Just wanted to show off our latest print!

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Mixing Pigment Inks

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Step 1 – Lay down some newsprint or newspaper for easy clean up. Pigment inks typically have a binder and concentrated pigment. I like using pigment inks because they are more economical over time and allow for accurate PMS colors if a project requires it. Matsui makes an incredible water-based ink system that is eco-friendly [...]

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