SUPER-LOW-TECH

SCREEN PRINTING
A DIY GUIDE

Screen printing is a relatively easy way to reproduce designs

multiple times onto t-shirts and patches, etc. The conventional
method usually involves printing digital images onto
transparencies which are transfered onto a 'silk screen' covered
in a photo sensitive chemical in a light unit. However, there are
older low-tech approaches which allow you to produce prints
without all the expensive kit and making use of mostly found or
recycled materials. This zine will teach you all you need to know
to get started.
http://we.riseup.net/diy/screen-printing

About this zine

This is the print version of an online guide by

the same name. It was produced entirely using
open-source software (Scribus and Inkscape).

Copyleft

Both the online and print versions are

provided under creative commons license. You
are free to reproduce, copy, modify or utilise
the document or any part of the document as
long as it is not for profit making purposes.
Any derivative work should retain this license.

Online version

The online version is public wiki page on

crabgrass were you can leave comments and
download the PDF to print and the Scribus file
used to layout the zine. Find it at
https://we.riseup.net/diy/screen-printing

Contents:
1 - Introduction
2 - Essential Equipment
The screen

Making a frame

The Mesh (Silk)

Fixing mesh to screen

Squeegees

Other Equipment
5 - The Artwork

Getting 'Screen Ready'

7- Transfering to screen
Weblinks

Since webpages move or vanish we've avoided

putting links in the zine. Visit the online
version for links to suppliers of pre-made
screens, embroidery hoops, squeegees and
paint etc. as well as links to other guides to
making screens or screen-printing generally.

Translations

You may find French, Spanish or German

translations of this via the online version. If
you would like to offer or help with
translations then please get in touch.

Credits

Text by Ben and Laura. Zine layout by Ben and

Violette. Illustrations by Violette.
Super-Low-Tech Screen-Printing

Positive or Negative
Blocking out

8 - The Printing Process

Ink & Substrate

Flood and stroke

Fancy Stuff

10 - Finishing up
Washing Up!

Drying / Curing
Useful Jargon

Introduction

We first started messing about with

low-tech screen-printing at the climate
camps in Bonn and La Harve. At the No
Border camp in Brussels later the same
year we found ourselves doing a
workshop. The technique was
attractive because it enabled us to
produce t'shirts and patches etc. for
campaigns/action without needing any
equipement or spending much money.
We knocked-up frames using
everything from pallet-wood planks and
cut timber, to plywood batons and
chipboard. For mesh we utilised fabric
from a womens blouse, a scarf and
sheer curtains. We variously stapled,
gaffer-taped, nailed and glued both
frames and mesh as well as
experimenting with different ways of
creating the artwork. Over time we've
learned from mistakes and honed our
methods.
Although nothing weve been doing is
new, most people these days wouldn't
think to use these methods so we
thought it would be good to promote
this cheap and accessible approach by
producing a guide.

Pros & Cons of this technique

+ More spontaneous and accessble

+ More DIY, authentic and creative

+ More recycled and sustainable

+ Requires less equipiment/chemicals

+ Very cheap apart from the paint
- Less reliable and predictable

- Less flexible in terms of artwork

- Labour intensive putting artwork on screen

- Cant just print off digital imagery
- Cant reuse screens

Why Use The Low-tech Approach:

You need something printed today.

You just want a dozen or so tshirts, armbands, or

patches.
You prefer not to spend much money on this.

You dont have a studio and want to do this

where-ever and when-ever you like and need.

You dont have access to all the kit required for

photo exposure.
You dont expect this to become your job or a
primary hobby.

When To Opt For Photo Exposure:

You already have access to equipment/chemicals.

You want intricate artwork or lots of small words.

You want to use digital imagery.

You need separations for multicolour design.

You want hundreds of tshirts / might sell them.

Some readers might find the following conversions handy

Currency: 1 ~ 1.2 ~ $1.5 (at time of writting)
Measurements: 1 inch / 1" = 2.5cm / 25mm

http://we.riseup.net/diy/screen-printing

Essential Equipment
The Screen

Ready-made screens can cost as little

as 15 (for a small one ~10" square).
If you planned to use photo emulsion
you'd be able to reuse the screen for
different artwork by applying another
chemical to remove the dried emulsion.
This is not practical when using the
low-tech approach but fortunately it is
easy to make your own screens with
minimal materials and tools.
Making a frame

You will need four pieces of suitable

sized wood to form the frame
(depending on your needs, about 15" is
good size) . The best joins require
accurately cutting notches or 45
angles. Don't worry though, it's fine
just butting the pieces together at 90.
If your wood is fairly thin then you
could use eight pieces to create two
identical frames, then fix one on top of
the other with the butted corner joins
offset. Use nails, screws, staples or
glue to fix it together.

Super-Low-Tech Screen-Printing

There is an even easier way to make

a frame but it requires a drill and jig
saw. Take a piece of 3/4inch plywood,
chip or particle board (easily found in
skips). Cut it down to be about 4 inchs
larger in each dimension than the
screen size you desire. Drill holes about
2 inches from two of the corners
diagonally opposite each other (the
hole needs to be larger than your
jigsaw blade). Now cut in two directions
from each hole, parallel with the edges
and maintaining about 2 inch clearance.
When done, the bit in the centre
should fall out leaving you with a one
piece frame.

You could take a short cut by using an old wooden

picture frame with the glass and back removed.
You might also like to try using large embroidery
hoops which are cheap to get online or in charity
shops/car boot sales etc. Being round brings
additional challenges but they offer some
potential advantages too being light weight and
easy to travel with.

The Mesh (Silk)

The proper screen printing fabric

(not actually silk these days) is fairly
expensive. You can however buy enough
for perhaps six A4 screens for ~10
off ebay. Or you could save your money
for paints and make do with what you
can find.

White or lightly coloured is best so

you can easily draw on it. It needs to be
sheer so when you hold it up to the
light you can see the grid formed by
the fibres and the little squares of
nothingness in between. The proper
stuff generally has 110 threads per
inch, thats about 4 per mm but if you
find fabric with 2 or 3 holes per mm
then that will be fine. The best stuff
Ive found has been a fabric used for
sheer curtains. As far as I can tell its
probably a polyester known as Chiffon
or Organza. Its cheap to buy if you
felt inclined to do so, perhaps 2 per
meter at least a third of the price of
the proper stuff.
Apparently you can also use old nylon
stockings/tights but due to their elasticity
theyd work best with small frames, perhaps the
embroidery hoop frames.

If you wet the fabric before you stretch it onto

the frame, it will shrink a bit when it dries and
end up even more taut. Ideally you should wash
the material in hot water before use anyway to
remove existing residues of detergent or fabric
conditioner which might cause problems later on.

Fixing Mesh to Frame

Cut the mesh so its a least 2" bigger

all round than the frame. You want it as
taut as possible without tearing it and
evenly taut in all directions. Pin or
staple down the centre of one side and
then pull tight and do the opposite side.
Now work towards the corners an inch
or two at a time, doing the opposite
each time. Once you have two sides,
repeat the process with the other two.

Your screen will last longer if you

seal the frame with polyurethane
varnish or wood glue. At the very least,
wrap the frame in gaffer or even
masking tape.
Recently, after running out of staples, we used
double sided sticky tape to hold and tension the
mesh and then squirted wood glue between the
frame and fabric to provide a more permanent
bond. Glue can be used by itself, but it must be
allowed to dry between tensioning alternate
sides.

http://we.riseup.net/diy/screen-printing

Squeegees

The squeegee is the tool used to

press ink through the stencil produce
on the screen. They have a rubber
blade with a wooden or plastic handle
and should be an inch or two shorter
than the width of the screen they will
be used with.
Proper screenprinting squeegees
start at about
12/15 (Speedball
23cm) and even the rubber itself is
something stupid like 1 per inch!

Apparently you can use tile grout squeegees

which cost about 3/4 for 30cm. We've not yet
tried one but they look promising. You would
probably find that they would work better with
the rubber cut in two along the
length as they are very wide
(and you get to make a second
squeegee with the bit you cut
off).

You will need:

Thin wood or plastic strips

Rubber strips

Staple gun or small nails

We made our own squeegees after

being lucky enough to find some strips
of fairly thick rubber. We sandwiched
the rubber between two piece of thin
wood using a staple gun to hold it
together then wrapped the handle in
gaffer tape. They work pretty well and
can be made specifically to fit the size
of the screens you use.
There doesn't seem to be much
online describing making squeegees out
of easily found materials. However, we
did find one page which recommended
wrapping a piece of inner tube or thin
rubber around a stiff strip of thin
metal sandwiched between two pieces
of wood.

Other useful equipment

You can start printing with little more than a screen and squeegee but other
stuff would be useful too. For example, overalls or an apron, plus rags and old
newspaper, will help keep paint from getting on things it should not. Sisors
enable you to cut up material for patches and trim them after printing. Rather
than using the kitchen table, it's good to have a flat board (known in the trade
as a platen) on which to place the things you are printing. It's also handy to
have a rack or 'washing line' ready nearby on which to drape each item after
printing, otherwise you'll soon cover every available surface. Having a blow
heater (or hair dryer) speeds up drying screens and prints. Finally, an iron or
heat press is needed if you want your prints made colourfast.
Super-Low-Tech Screen-Printing

The Artwork

The low-tech approach lends itself

best to fairly simply and bold designs.
You can still get fairly intricate if you
have plenty of patience but things with
lots of detail or small writing will be
pretty tricky and probably best done
using photo emulsion. Basically, dont
try to be too ambitious!
You will need:

An idea, pencils. paper

Wood glue and/or acrylic paint

A small fine paint brush

Getting 'Screen Ready'

Screen printing requires mono-tone

artwork. Either ink is printed or it is
not, there are no in-between tones, no
greyscale. You need black and white
line drawings. If you really want
shading then it has to be done with
lines, cross hatching or dithering with
dots and you might want to reconsider
using this low-tech approach.
If you were working with digital images things
would be easy. Applications like Gimp or
Photoshop have filters to convert colour or
greyscale images into a mono-tone line drawings
or half-tone filters which convert the whole
image into a matrix of different size dots.

B FORBLACK&WHITE

http://we.riseup.net/diy/screen-printing

Positive or negative

Screen-print involves creating a

stencil and what is printed will be the
negative of what you put on the screen.
You will be painting (or block out) the
parts of the design which you don't
want printed. So before you go any
further you need to consider which
arts of the artwork should be painted
onto the screen and what should be left
as open space.
For example, if you wanted to
produce a smilie with two eyes and a
mouth inside a circle, you could either
paint the eyes, mouth and outline of
the circle, or you could carefully avoid
the eyes and mouth while painting both

Super-Low-Tech Screen-Printing

outside and inside the circle but not

the outline (ie. the negative). Mostly
youd want to produce a negative but
sometimes it is easier to do all or some
of the design as a positive. Think
carefully about what this means and
perhaps modify the artwork so that
some bits can be done as positive if

need be. With our example, you could

make things easier by using a circle
solid instead of an outline. This would
give you the options of either painting
the eyes, mouth and everything outside
of the circle or just painting the inside
of the circle while avoiding the eyes
and mouth.

Transferring to screen

Blocking Out

If need be, you can even trace

directly off a computer monitor. Scale
the image exactly to the size you need
then place the screen over the display
and start tracing. Be careful not to
press too hard or mark the display with
permanent ink! If your computer
monitor is smaller than the image size
to desire, dont worry, just zoom to the
size you need and trace in stages to get
the full image.

It is best to paint both sides of the

mesh so that it is fully sandwiched by
paint. Hold the screen up to a light to
check for unintentional open space or
pinholes as you work. When complete,
allow to dry (ideally somewhere hot)
and then it is ready for printing.

You start by drawing the design onto

the mesh with a soft lead pencil or felt
pen. This can be done either freehand
or traced.

Use a fine brush to apply either

wood glue (not clear setting) or acrylic
paint (any colour) to the negative parts
of the artwork. Work on one area at a
time to reduce the chance of smudging
your work. If you make a mistake, use a
damp cotton bud to wipe away
unwanted paint/glue.

http://we.riseup.net/diy/screen-printing

The Printing Process

You will need:

Something to print on

Ink (Acrylic Paint or Fabric paint)

Squeegee and/or paint brush
Access to running water
Ink &

Substrate

The thing you want to print on is

known as the substrate, eg. tshirts or
scraps of fabric for patches. If you
want t'shirts, save money and avoid
buying new sweatshop labour industrial
cotton by hunting down all the blank
t'shirts you can find in charity shops,
free shops and clothes recycling bins
(the variety of sizes, styles and colours
may also be advantageous). For patches
you can often get cheap remnants in
fabric shops (<1 per meter) or just
cut up old shirts, trousers etc.

Super-Low-Tech Screen-Printing

Some fabric takes print better than

others, eg. cotton tshirts good, woolly
jumpers bad.
Special ink can be purchased for
screen printing but for those on a low
budget ordinary acrylic is fine and
fairly cheap (eg. 8 for 500ml). You
need to think carefully about what

colours to use. High contrast works

best. eg. black ink on white is really
easy (likewise, black on yellow).
However, black or dark fabrics may
show through when printing with white
ink (which is often cheapest).
You can buy something called screen printing
medium which is a retarder for acrylic paint so
that it dries slower to prevent clogging.

These printing methods also works for paper (and

you can use cheap poster paint instead of
acrylic). All the posters for the Brussels No
Border camp were printed by hand. We've also
successfully printed onto rolls of sticky backed
transparent plastic to make window stickers.

Flood and Stroke

On a nice flat stable surface, spread

out your substrate so there are no
creases then place the screen where
you want to print. Its usually a good
idea to put some scrap paper under the
material (or inside if printing on a
tshirt etc). Now you want to load the
screen with ink by first placing a bead
of ink across the entire width of the
image about 1cm from the back of the
screen. Holding the squeegee with
both hands (and holding it at a 60
degree angle) you will make a flood
stroke by pull the ribbon of ink
towards you without applying any
downward pressure. Returning the
squeegee to the back of the screen you
will make the print stroke in the same
fashion, only this time you should apply
downward pressure. Strictly speaking
there should be just one print stroke
but we generally find we need two or
even three.

Multi-coloured printing

There is nothing to stop you using

more than one colour at a time. You can
create gradients by blending two or
more colours when placing the bead of
ink before the flood stroke.
Alternatively, instead of a conventional
flood stroke, use a brush to gently
apply different colour inks directly to
the parts of the stencil you want them,
then continue to the print stroke.

Another option is overprinting. This

involves printing again with another
colour, perhaps slightly offset to
create a shadow or 3D like effect (this
is a good way to recover from having
printed something poorly).
Alternatively you could use of just part
of the stencil when overprinting or use
a completely different screen!
It is handy to have a few different sized
squeegees, brushes and mixing bowls when
working with more than one colour. Some quick
method of drying screens will also help.

http://we.riseup.net/diy/screen-printing

Finishing up
Do the washing-up!

You must not let the ink dry onto

your screen! Acrylic paints can dry
really fast in warm weather and you
might only manage half a dozen print
before it starts to clog. In winter
weve knocked out over 200 prints
without needing to wash the frame.
Dont take risks, if it dries then your
screen is ruined! Wash the paint off
before it clogs using cold water,
preferable a high pressure jet. Hold a
finger over the end of the tap or hose
and expect to get wet. Shake it dry
before continuing - or better still, use
a blow heater or hair dryer.
Don't forget to clean all the ink off your
squeegee and brushes etc.

Drying & Curing

Dry is not the same as cured. If you

want your t'shirts/patches to survive a
visit to the laundrette then you must
apply heat to cure the ink otherwise it
may wash out.
Place a plain sheet of paper over the
image and then use an iron (hottest
setting, no steam) for 3 to 5 minutes.
Yes, it will take a really long time to do
properly if you have printed loads.

A commercial heat press or flash cure unit is

expensive. You could try a trouser press or other
heating methods if you are careful (we tried
putting patches in a preheated oven!).
Super-Low-Tech Screen-Printing

Jargon Buster
Artwork: Common term for an image or text to be used
for printing although not necessarily ready to transfer
to screen. Screen Art refers to artwork that is already
set up for the screen printing process.
Bleeding: Migration of ink outside of intended printing
area, perhaps due to too many print strokes or watery
ink.
Blockout: Both the process and substance used to
cover open areas of mesh in order to form a stencil
resisting the flow of ink.
Clogging (or Plugging): Ink drying on the stencil
unintentionally thus preventing further ink flow through
the stencil.C olourfast: The ability of dyed fabric or print
to retain its colours over repeated washings.
Colour Separation: Creation of seperate images for
each colour in a design which can then be printed in
sequence to reproduce the original.
Emulsion (or photo emulsion): Light sensitive chemical
which usually comes as two parts (emulsion and
sensitizer) to be mixed before use. It goes hard when
exposed to light and can no longer be washed out with
water.
Mesh Count (or T count): Number of threads in one
square inch of screen fabric, measured in both
directions. The higher the number, the smaller the
openings.
Opacity: An inks ability to cover the underlying color of
the substrate.
Open Area: The area of a stencil that the ink passes
through.
Pinholes: Tiny unwanted open spaces on the screen.
Registration: The process of lining up the images for
overprinting.
Serigraphy: The technical term for screen printing or
silk screen printing.
Stencil: The portion of the screen containing open areas
and blockout forming the image to be printed.

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