Screen Printing with Emulsion
Materials:
- A solid black design printed in transparency paper.
- Photo emulsion and sensitizer.
- A screen slightly bigger than the image you want to print.
- Screen printing ink
- A squeegee
- A scoop coater
- A spoon
- Something to print on (A3 cardboard or thick paper)
- Scotch tape
- A rag to clean
The design:
The most important stage of screen printing is to make sure the images must be printed solid black to block the light properly. The design was for a small booklet portfolio for illustrations (2 joint illustrations and 3 individual illustrations per person). Once we settled on the design, we printed out on a laser printer onto transparency paper.
Step 1: Prepare the emulsion in a dark room. From his point on, all light source must come for a red lightbulb. Mix the sensitizer and the emulsion together according to the directions on the bottle.
Step 2: Pour a little of the emulsion mixture on the scoop coater and spread it out on the screen until coated and you can’t see through it. Make sure to do both sides of the screen with a thin, even layer across the whole screen. Clean up the excess.
Step 3: Leave the screen in a pitch-black room with a red light until it’s completely dry. It can take up to 10 minutes to dry with a cool air hairdryer or fan.
Step 4: Once the coat of emulsion turns matte, it’s time to expose the screen to white light. Take the positives and rub a bit of baby oil on the black spots of the design to help adhere it to the screen. Then tape the positive against the screen.
Step 5: Lay down the screen and positive with the screen side down on top of a lighting table. Make sure the design is on the right side. Lay a piece of white cardboard on top of the screen along with something heavy to keep in place—it can be a piece of glass or books. Depending on the emulsion and the design, you need to run a test on the developing time. In our case, the testing resulted in 9 minutes per screen on the lighting tables.
Step 6: Carefully pull up the transparency. You should see faint blue lines where the image is burned into the screen. If it looks good, it’s time to clean it off. If not, leave it a few more minutes and check back. Overexposure will make the image bleed, so be careful.
Step 7: Spray your screen down with cold water from a hose. Notice how the section where your image is starts to flake off? Continue spraying it until you can see through your image clearly. Hold the screen up to the light to make sure it looks exactly like your ransparency.
Step 8: Let the screen dry. Once it’s dry, you can do some test prints and then some retouches with the emulsion and develop again.
Step 9: Set up the printing space with the A3 cardboard divided in 8 sections, cover any exposed parts of the screen you don’t want to print with tape, and align the screen do the illustration fit centered on the corresponding sections.
Step 10: Carefully place the screen on top of the cardboard so it matches the sections and secure its position with the help of other group members. With a spoon, place ink on the top part of the screen away from the holes in the stencil.
Step 11: Run the squeegee with steady pressure twice vertically and twice horizontally, and then quickly remove the screen to avoid getting it stuck to the cardboard.
Step 12: Check the design was printed correctly. If there have been some errors or the screen moved, try again. The good thing about working with a developed screen is that they can be cleaned and reused as many times as you want—just be careful with overexposing it to the water, cleaning it quickly with cold water and rubbing it softly helps get the ink out.
Step 13: Let the prints dry overnight and then fold the booklet.
The most important stage of screen printing is to make sure the images must be printed solid black to block the light properly. The design was for a small booklet portfolio for illustrations (2 joint illustrations and 3 individual illustrations per person). Once we settled on the design, we printed out on a laser printer onto transparency paper.
Step 1: Prepare the emulsion in a dark room. From his point on, all light source must come for a red lightbulb. Mix the sensitizer and the emulsion together according to the directions on the bottle.
Step 2: Pour a little of the emulsion mixture on the scoop coater and spread it out on the screen until coated and you can’t see through it. Make sure to do both sides of the screen with a thin, even layer across the whole screen. Clean up the excess.
Step 3: Leave the screen in a pitch-black room with a red light until it’s completely dry. It can take up to 10 minutes to dry with a cool air hairdryer or fan.
Step 5: Lay down the screen and positive with the screen side down on top of a lighting table. Make sure the design is on the right side. Lay a piece of white cardboard on top of the screen along with something heavy to keep in place—it can be a piece of glass or books. Depending on the emulsion and the design, you need to run a test on the developing time. In our case, the testing resulted in 9 minutes per screen on the lighting tables.
Step 6: Carefully pull up the transparency. You should see faint blue lines where the image is burned into the screen. If it looks good, it’s time to clean it off. If not, leave it a few more minutes and check back. Overexposure will make the image bleed, so be careful.
Step 7: Spray your screen down with cold water from a hose. Notice how the section where your image is starts to flake off? Continue spraying it until you can see through your image clearly. Hold the screen up to the light to make sure it looks exactly like your ransparency.
Step 8: Let the screen dry. Once it’s dry, you can do some test prints and then some retouches with the emulsion and develop again.
Step 9: Set up the printing space with the A3 cardboard divided in 8 sections, cover any exposed parts of the screen you don’t want to print with tape, and align the screen do the illustration fit centered on the corresponding sections.
Step 10: Carefully place the screen on top of the cardboard so it matches the sections and secure its position with the help of other group members. With a spoon, place ink on the top part of the screen away from the holes in the stencil.
Step 11: Run the squeegee with steady pressure twice vertically and twice horizontally, and then quickly remove the screen to avoid getting it stuck to the cardboard.
Step 12: Check the design was printed correctly. If there have been some errors or the screen moved, try again. The good thing about working with a developed screen is that they can be cleaned and reused as many times as you want—just be careful with overexposing it to the water, cleaning it quickly with cold water and rubbing it softly helps get the ink out.
Step 13: Let the prints dry overnight and then fold the booklet.
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