Screen Printing

I did quite a bit of screen printing at uni but haven't done any since. It seemed like to big a challenge to do it at home after having done it in big messy studio for years with all the resources to hand. 

For Christmas I received an a4 screen, some inks, and all the equipment you would need to print at home, but I was still to intimidated to have a go. So I purchased a book called 'Screen Printing at Home' by Karen Lewis and this gave me the confidence to have a go. 

You will need:

A screen printing screen

Or an embroidery hoop with cheese cloth

Paper

Masking tape

Craft knife 

Cutting board 

Screen printing inks 

Plastic spoons 

Squeegee 

Spatula

Plastic cups

Fabric 

Iron 

First of all you need to design or pick a print. Go for something simple, especially at first as you will need to paper cut it out. 

Cut out your image using a craft knife on a cutting board.

Masking tape the your image to the screen making sure there is tape in all the gaps you don't want printing.

Mix your inks to get your desired colours using the plastic cups and spoons.

Using a large clean surface i.e. the kitchen / dinning table, lay a large piece of scrap fabric, such as calico, this creates a softer surface to print on and will hopefully stop lumps and bumps off the label coming up on your print. Make sure the fabric is ironed.

Lay the fabric you wish to print on top of the scrap fabric and also iron it. 

Lay your screen, flush side down onto the fabric.

Spread a decent amount of your mixed ink to the top of the inside of the screen with a spatula. 

Using a firm but not too heavy pressure pull the squeegee down, pulling the ink with it. Go back up the screen with the squeegee and back down again, then carefully lift off the screen and carefully place it back down to create a repeat print. 

Make sure to really clean your screen and all your implements after use, I found this easiest in the shower basin. 

Once the first colour is dry feel free to add another colour, and another and another. 

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, it's not perfect but that's okay, and it wasn't obviously as easy as doing it in a studio, I think cleaning everything was the biggest challenge but I'm chuffed with myself for finally getting around to having a go at it.  

Im thinking next time I move or re decorate, I might attempt to print all my own curtains, duvets, cushions etc. I think I might use a variation of dyeing fabrics, screen printing, fabric block printing, fabric paint, fabric pens and fabric crayons. 

I love all this abstract type bedding and print from urban outfitters, so I think that's what I might try to re create.