Just a quick look at some parts of t-shirt making. It’s my first time printing on shirts. Like I said, the bazaar pushes us to make things. It’s a work that’s been procrastinating way too long.

The positive is positioned on the shirt to be printed. This is called positive to screen registration (to align the image to the intended position on the shirt). There’s another way to register which is by using an overlay, but that requires the screen to be inked/flooded first, it’s a little risky because textile inks dry quick, and while registering, the inks may dry and clot the screen. I should have been printing on a t-shirt press, but I’m actually making only one print a screen and don’t really have to worry about continuing an edition.

Lowering the screen down for registration. See that the screen is not flooded yet? The idea is to align the white open areas in the screen with the drawing on the positive. When it is in position, remove the positive and continue printing. If there’s anyone with a quicker or better method, let me know.

Inking.

Print stroke. I think it’s not the right squeegee, should be a sharp one, but whatever works at the moment.

Quick inspection.

Hurray!

Here’s another one. Visualizing the position of the next layer on a monoprint t-shirt. These shirts had some accidental marks (imperfect print, marks or stains) which I actually welcome a lot when I make my usual drawings. A bad print isn’t exactly a bad mark, it’s interesting, so I think I have to somehow respond spontaneously to it and try to create a harmonious relationship between all the layers.

Some images showing parts of my screen-printing process.

This is the screen and the brown parts are painted with screen filler to cover up pinholes.  

Using Photoshop to decide colour scheme.

Printing.

1st Layer.

2nd Layer.

3rd Layer.

4th Layer.

Final Print.