TOUR SHIRT WALKTHROUGH - Part 5 - Exposing/Washout

[upperhandprinting]

I coated the screens using a 1/1 method with the Saati PV emulsion.

I started with the 160 mesh underbase layer as I knew this would be the hardest to get the halftones to hold. I always take a blank screen to my press with a film and measure where on the screen it should sit. With these images I'm really pushing the limits of size on a standard screen, so it's important to make sure you get it where it needs to be to line up on the press as well as hit your pallet right. Once I had it lined up, I took the film in the dark room and taped it to my 160 mesh screen. I exposed it for a very quick 24 seconds. Once exposed, I took off the film and set the screen in my washout booth. I softly let water run down the screen on both sides to get the uncured emulsion wet again. I let it sit for a good 5 minutes and then began to gently spray out the stencil. I was being cautious because trying to do these halftones on a 160 mesh screen isn't easy and I was afraid of either blowing out the emulsion or not holding the halftones.

This screen held up well but the halftones didn't come out like I wanted. I wasn't sure if it was the mesh I selected or just being too easy with washing it out, but for good measure I burned another 160 screen with the same screen. I used a bit more pressure this time and it came out good enough for my liking.

I used the same technique for the rest of the layers, measuring down the same distance on each screen so the films would line up and exposing them and washing them out the exact same way. Put them up to dry and I would soon be ready for the press.

[Catspit Productions]

Nice. Very good rundown here. It’s so important with a multi colored print that you make sure the film positives are lined up on the screens in such a manner that they will all easily fall into the same place on each print head on press. Taking care to do this well will make setting up much easier and save wasted time on re burning screens.

The only thing I would add here is a 200 mesh would probably have helped out I generally don’t use anything less than that for any halftone work. Also for halftones and very high detail you want a thin stencil so we tend to use higher mesh counts as they hold less emulsion thus creating the thinner stencil. Also the better film positive you have the better off you are. With halftones density and resolution are very important.

I love it. Nice string of posts. Thanks so much for taking the time to do these

[ApeShirt]

24 second exposure? That works? How does that work for halftones when "normal" exposure takes a few minutes? I seem to always have to expose for at least 4 minutes or I get blowout.