mini silk screen part 2

So it's dry now!  To finish this project all I need are: a screen with the image on it, a flat piece of cardboard or mat board and some paint!  Since I'm not going to be washing this mini shirt at all regular acrylic paint would have worked out just fine, but I just used my fabric silkscreen ink since it dries a little softer.

So here's everything! You can see that I added tape around the design on the bottom of my screen (the part that rests against the shirt).  Normally I would fill in the whole rest of the screen with tape to be safe, but the shirt is so small I only had to go out as far as the shirt.

I thoroughly  taped the shirt down, since it's so small it's not going to sit still very well!

This is my registration system!  Once I flood the screen with paint I won't be able to see where I'm placing the design through the paint, so I have to set it up so that I'll know exactly where to put the screen.

You can find really good screen printing instructions online, but it's really short and simple!  Just run a line of paint above where your design is, take your little square of cardboard (ideally a squeegie, but I don't have one that small) and very gently, without pressing down smear the paint over the design.  Make sure that it covers the entire design.  Then do a little test print, go over it again with your squeegie, this time press down fairly hard!  

Now lift up your screen to see your test print!  If everything seems good, it's a go!  For this really small one I had to move fast since if the paint dries in your screen, the screen is done for.  Since the test looked good I went ahead and did the shirt!

Woohoo, not bad!

 

After just a little touching up, it's acceptable I think!

Mini silkscreening

So I posted about making a Homestuck troll doll, well if you know anything about Homestuck and the trolls you know that they have important zodiac symbols on their shirts!

I managed to make a little shirt, but had to think about how to do the sign, since I wanted it to look good, but very little can look good when quite that small...

So small.

I decided to try mini silkscreen, since it's the best way to get an even looking design onto fabric (besides maybe airbrushing, but that's debatable depending on skill level and paint available).  Instead of using one of my actual screens, I thought what the hell, I'll just make a little one, it's just a frame with some screen over it, simple!

So instead of making an actual mini one, I decided to make a mini disposable one!  I had some extra mat board scraps and screen.  The screen I use isn't actually made for silk screening, I went to Target and bought one white sheer curtain for about $4, and it's probably more screen than I will ever use.

So I just cut a window out of the mat board and hot glued the screen in it!  I did my best to get it tight, but since it's so small it's not too important.  As long as it isn't all saggy or anything!

Next I drew the design I wanted on with pencil.  I drew it on with the shirt underneath so I was sure to get the scale right.

Since this is a throwaway screen I decided to just use Mod Podge to fill it in, since it wouldn't need to come off again.  Mod Podge is good since it's water resistant, which is what you need!

So just paint it on carefully avoiding your drawn design, the point is to fill in the screen everywhere but your design.  So paint won't go through the filled areas that you've painted, but will go through the design!  I hope that makes sense, I'm so bad at explaining it.

I just paint a little square around it, and when it's dry I'll use tape to cover the rest, since I don't feel like painting the whole thing in.

Just wait for it to dry!  I'll finish this up tomorrow!