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Silkscreen Printing, is the process of transferring a stencilled design onto a surface using a mesh screen, ink, and a squeegee (a rubber blade). This is commonly applied in the printing of T-shirt Designs and Posters. 

Silkscreen printing process can be summarized in 3 steps:
1. Stencilling 
2. Burning
3. Printing

Click to see FULL VERSION of process.
 

Materials Needed

Apron and rag
Coater or Trough
Pre-mix Photo Emulsion
(above)
(need to mix - below)
Screen Frame
Hair Dryer
& Holding Box
Design copy (left) Transparency (right)

1) Stencilling - Making the Stencil

This entire process is carried out in a DARK ROOM.
Absolutely NO light must interfere in this process.

Outcome: The Stencil

With the stencil, you can make many prints, in any colour.

If time permits, you can also make screens for different parts of the design for different desired colours. For each colour, one screen is needed.

What makes a successful screen:
A Smooth and Even Layer of Emulsion Coating

After washing the screen, you will see clear empty spaces and lines, right down to the finest lines intended in your design.

The blue emulsion is easy to clean off and doesn't stick to the screen on your positive areas.
failed demo.jpg
A failed stencil (your artwork not showing properly afte washing) could be due to several factors:

1. Over exposure - (white areas not coming through)
Solution: Test again with reduced timing. This piece was cured in 5 min. Try 4 min 30 sec, 4 min and 3 min 45 sec

2. Uneven/ overcoating of photo emulsion - (some areas too thick)
Solution: Do not overcoat with coater in step 1. Make sure screen is evenly stretched and shake out photoemulsion bottle before use

3. Light seeping through - (causing overexposure)
Solution:
i) Ensure transparency is dark enough especially artwork with fine lines.
ii) Do not open the door or shine light from your handphone in the dark room.
ii) Place even sufficient weights to give pressure to transparency and screen during burning/ curing)

2) Burning/ Curing - Photo process

3) Printing

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