Silk Screen Printing

[Torchwatch]

I spent a couple of days last week at a screen printing company.
They were making very large prints for store window sale marketing on paper.
I was able to watch the whole process, from coating the screens with photo emulsion, exposing the screen and acetate template to light, to the actual printing process onto paper.

I have been making men's swim briefs at home for a few years, and now have both a sewing machine and an overlocker. I have wanted to screen print onto lycra and spandex for some time, and have a printing screen and some suitable stretchy ink. The ink has to be "rubberised" when used on stretch fabrics or it will flake off. Up to now i have only used thin paper stencils taped to the underside of the screen, this makes crude non detailed prints to the accuracy of your ability to cut holes in paper.

The photo emulsion system starts by computer printing a design on overhead projector acetates and using a bright light to put the image onto a sensitized coated screen. Part of the screen coating washes away in water leaving a printable stencil.

Any text or simple image can then be printed onto swim suits, cycle shorts or tee shirts. One colour at a time.

Should I take the next step and buy the photo emulsion kit?

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

You only get to do this show once... if you really want it, and it sounds like you will make great use of it, I say do it. It is so cool that you make your own suits.