Studio Brief 01 | Leeds Public Spaces | Development - Screen printing

To begin the screen printing process I had to use two screens to print my design on. My design consists on using two colours, these are black and gold. 

To commence this method I find two screens and begin to take off the previous emulsion print on the screen. To do this I will need to use too types of liquids to rub away with a sponge - so the emulsion will be able to wash off with water on the screen. This has to be done twice on the front and back of the screen, by using the power water jet and consistently going from left to right until the screen is clear of emulsion. 

One all the emulsion is gone and the screen is cleared. The screen needs to be dried for 15-20 minutes before the new emulsion can be put on. 

Once the minutes are up it is now time to put the emulsion on. Lean the clean screen facing the outer area, this is were the emulsion will be put on. To apply the emulsion onto the screen you will need to pour the emulsion into the scraper. Once the scraper is filled with emulsion push the scraper against the clear screen and in a tilt upwards motion spread the emulsion on the screen. This has to be repeated twice to make sure there is enough emulsion on the screen. 

When that is done, the screen with the new emulsion needs to be put in a drying rack for at least 30-45 minutes. When emulsion is dry on the screen, the screen will need to be expose with your chosen design in a exposure. First place the design with the black toned ink facing up and place your screen with the emulsion on top of the design. Then close the lid of the exposure, lock the lid by the buckles. Then press start and vacuum which will transfer the design onto the emulsion within 17 minutes.

Once the 17 minutes are up, the exposed screen needs to be washed off with later as the design will come through. Then this needs to be dry before applying the paint onto the paper. 

To make the paint to go on the screen - acrylic paint and some emulsion will need to be fix together otherwise the paint will become dry when reusing it again and again. 

Once the screen is dry with the design on it. It is important to put duck tape around the inside edges of the screen. As the screen sometimes my not be completely covered by emulsion and some unwanted paint my go in areas that you may not want there. 

Now to screen print place your screen facing the bottom into the board that has hinges this will allow for the screen to move up or down whenever you need to screen print. 

Then use the acetate paper and get masking take to stick at the sides. This will be a guide on where to place your paper when printing on it. So first screen print with the acetate sheet, place the paint on top of the expose design. Use a squeege, to spread the paint onto the screen in a upwards and downwards motion. Until you can see that the design is covered with paint. 

Lift up the screen and then see the printed design has printed on the acetate sheet. Once it has then use the acetate sheet to align either a practice paper or the paper that you desire to print the design on. Repeat the same idea until the designs printed. 

This is the method that I used print my designs on paper - I had two layers so I had to use to screens. Below are images of me doing the screen printing process. 

 

 

Below are some images of my final prints, the turn out of these screen print posters came out well. However, there were some problems when screen printing i.e the paint kept drying up so the paint would not go through the exposed screen. This lead to the design having some textured and patchy parts. Some screen prints that I did on other pieces of paper, the layers over lapped as I did not align correctly leaving the look uneven.