This weekend I finally had set some aside some free time to try out my new screen printing kit. I received this kit as a gift for being Facebook official with my boyfriend for three yup THREE years. I have spent almost 3 weeks thinking and wondering what am I going to print first, setting up and watching educational videos from a guy who seemed to have a slight stutter, maybe he was nervous, either way it was hard to get through. I digress... so this weekend it was time and boy did I run into some challenges and I learned some valuable screen printing lessons.
1. If you buy a 30 dollar printer/scanner except it to be a complete piece of (insert cuss word here)! I bought it mostly because I needed a scanner and didn't have a lot of extra cash. When I printed my transparency it came out all striped and half of it was missing. My abstract truck became even more abstract. I knew this wouldn't work because too much light would come through so I hand painted the rest of it. Another fyi 4 year old paint smells like butt...
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| Checking for light to come through |
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| Hand painted transparency and butt paint |
2. So once I finally got it painted it was time to burn the screen. The actual burning itself went very well however the cleaning out the emulsion didn't go so hot. I did this late last night because it was dark and the garage was cool enough to actually be in. Our hose has great pressure so I thought that this would be perfect to rinse off my screen. I walk to the front of my house and my neighbors are blaring Journey which was awesome yet strange. So I go to rinse off my screen and I'm jamming and singing along and I spray my screen and it makes this loud water on screen noise. And I noticed that my neighbors are sitting outside smoking and watching me. I realize how strange this must have looked so I decided to take my screen into the shower to wash it out. Judging by their confusing whispers they think I'm insane. Well who sits outside smokes in the dark and blares Journey?
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| Burning the screen |
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| My finished abstract truck wife beater |
3. After finally getting all of this washed out and getting my neighbors totally confused I was ready to print a shirt. I go to set up the printing press and after some minor fussing with the wrenches, screws and cuss words I finally got it working! And my first screen printed wife beater shirt was born.
This one shirt took me pretty much all weekend! However now that I know what I'm doing I'm going to start making a lot more projects and I can't wait! So after this long weekend I went to the drugstore and saw a mellow yellow and decided to indulge. Now for those of you not from CO, mello yello is not usually found in the pop section. So this weekend I figured out how to screen print on my own and lost my mello yello virginity which I have to say I've had better....
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| My First Mello Yello |
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