A TECHNIQUE DRIVEN Blog dedicated to mastery of surface design techniques. First we dye, overdye, paint, stitch, resist, tie, fold, silk screen, stamp, thermofax, batik, bejewel, stretch, shrink, sprinkle, Smooch, fuse, slice, dice, AND then we set it on fire using a variety of heat tools.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Onto Screen Printing

I put an image onto a screen using drawing fluid. When this was dry I used a squeegee to apply screen filler on top. When this was dry I washed out the drawing fluid.
This is a method I use a lot for applying imagery onto screens. I put the drawing fluid into a refillable roller ball pen so it is easy to draw on the screen.



Using thickened disperse dye I screened the image onto various fabrics.



The first was a piece of mixed fibre striped upholstery fabric


Followed by a piece of taffeta


When you are screening onto sheer fabric you only need one pull of the squeegee across the screen otherwise you do not get a good print. I usually take a print onto a piece of paper or a spare piece of fabric first before printing on the sheer. As you can see this looks very messy but when it has been steamed and washed out it transforms into a delicate printed piece of fabric which can be used on its own or layered with other fabrics.
Here are a couple of images of the striped fabric and the taffeta after more layers of print were added. The striped fabric is on the left and the taffeta on the right.


Below are the fabrics after steaming and washing

 Taffeta



Striped upholstery fabric and below is the polyester chiffon. You can see that all the messiness has disappeared and the fabric is lovely and soft




Next week I will be looking at manipulating the fabrics.

7 comments:

  1. You just piqued my interest when you mentioned the drawing fluid and refillable pen... I have very limited experience with screen printing, and think I need to pursue this more. Thank you!

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  2. Can you tell me what drawing fluid is? Also what is screen filler. I've done some screen printing but I haven't heard these terms before. Thanks for any explanation you can give.

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  4. Drawing fluid and screen filler are both made by Speedball. There are other makes but I find the Speedball the easiest to use.
    You draw on the screen with the drawing fluid and leave to dry.
    Then you apply the screen filler using a squeege and leave this to dry.
    Finally wash out the drawing fluid using cold water, allow the screen to dry and you are ready to print.
    These screens can be used over and over again as long as you clean them with cold water.
    Hope this helps.

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  5. What brand of refillable roller ball pen do you use? Thanks.

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  6. Fritz Mom
    Here is the link to the pen I have bought.
    https://www.graff-city.com/product_info.php?products_id=1929

    I hope this helps. I find them really useful.

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