EZ Screen Print

I read about the EZ Screen Print system in the Amy Karol book Bend the Rules with Fabric. I have always enjoyed using purchased silk screens but I never semed to be able to find the ones I wanted when I needed them. I bought the book back in August and have been mulling over purchasing the system since them.

A couple of weeks ago I took the plunge and, until a couple of days ago, it sat on the kitchen counter waiting for me to try it out.

Sweet Sadie's has run out of staff T-shirts so I took that as a sign to make some for them.

I started with some stained while t-shirts I have lying around here and, after runing one screen, got this result:

Imagine how it would look on an unstained T-shirt!

I then tried out my silk sreen on a black T-shirt..

Not as good a result because I didn't have the right ink but in a pinch it would work.

The way this system works is that it uses the sun, or another UV light source, to harden the emulsion on the screen where you don't want the ink to penetrate. Where you do want your image, you mask it from the sun (like the Sweet Sadie's which was printed in black on a transparency sheet) and the emulsion stays soft. Scrub off the soft emulsion, dry and put the screen out in the sun for a final hardening and your screen is ready to use.

I now have three different sizes of Sweet Sadie's silk screen bits, from one big screen, to try on other T-shirts to see what works best.

I hope Paul likes them.

Now to what I really want on a silk screen.... some smallish leaves to cover up stains on other T-shirts. Just need to find the right images.

If you would like try your hand at making silk screens, try this system. It's relatively inexpensive to begin, then if you like it, you can then invest in more screens.

I think 2010 will the year of the silk screens.

Could be worse!