Weddingbee Blog

Today is day one of my crash course in traditional screen printing! This series of posts is for all the brides/crafters out there who have ever considered investing in a Gocco or YUDU but could never justify the cost. Traditional screen printing may seem intimidating, but with a few tools you’ll be able to produce prints similar to if not better in quality than those produced on a Gocco or YUDU system. Oh, and the cost is about a third of that associated with a YUDU!

For starters, please don’t be intimidated by the list of tools below. All of the tools listed can be purchased online or through your local art or screen-print supply shop and none, with the exception of the laser printer, are over 25 bucks.

The Tools:

• Hinge clamps
• Aluminum or wood screen burned with your image
• Squeegee large enough to fully cover your artwork
• Water-based ink
• Tape
• Pallet adhesive/temporary spray adhesive
• Ink fixer (for textiles)
• Scissors*
• Transparencies/velum*
• Opaque black marker*
• Laser printer/copier
• Paint stir stick*
• Voided gift card (random, I know—I’ll explain!)*

*not pictured

The first step is to hand draw your artwork onto your transparencies/velum using an opaque black marker; deco paint pens work best. Or you can print it directly onto your velum or transparencies using a laser printer. It’s really important that you print your artwork using a laser printer and not an inkjet printer. Inkjets do not produce the opacity needed in your artwork to achieve a clean burn. Our artwork pictured below is printed on a tabloid-sized velum paper. Personally I prefer to use velum; at about 50 cents a sheet, it’s more economical than transparencies and is available in tabloid size for larger prints.

When your artwork is ready, it’s time to head down to your local art or screen supply store to buy your screen and have it burned. If you’re in the L.A. area, I strongly recommend for you to check out Screen Depot on Main Street in downtown; they cater to the industry but have great prices, and their screens are always perfectly burned. The cost of burning your screen generally depends on the amount of art pieces being burned on one screen and the size of your screen. It can range from 10–15 bucks depending on the shop you go to. This may seem like a steep price to pay for one screen, but remember, when compared to Gocco and YUDU screens that have a high margin of error, it’s a pretty small price to pay for a perfectly burned screen.

When picking out a screen, the second most important things to consider are screen size and mesh count. Mesh count is just a fancy way of referring to how many strings per inch are present on your screen mesh—the higher the count the less ink is allowed to pass through your screen and the finer the detail you can achieve in your prints. Your screen size is dependent on the size of artwork you plan to work with. You want to make sure that any screen you purchase has at least one inch of clearance on all four sides of your artwork. Typically we stick to a 17″ x 21″ 125 mesh screen; it’s a nice in-between mesh count that allows for fine work and also allows me to use thicker, more opaque ink. A screen this size will typically cost about 18 bucks and can be reused many, many times.

Next up is setting up your print station. For this you will need a pair of hinge clamps. Hinge clamps allow you to raise and lower your screen without losing registration on your print; they cost anywhere from 20–25 bucks. Now, it is possible to pull a print without the use of hinge clamps, but the process can get messy and has a higher margin of error, so it’s advisable that you invest in some clamps. Your clamps will need to be attached to a work bench or table. If you’re unwilling to permanently screw in your clamps to a solid piece of furniture, you can also use a large piece of plywood or MDF as long as it’s stable and roughly the same size as the screen you plan to use.

With your screen burned and your clamps installed, you’re ready to start printing! In my next post I’ll go over how to prep your screen for printing, what inks to use, and the proper way to use a squeegee!