This year I taught myself how to screen print from home! It took seven months to set up and figure out how to pull clean prints. There is a lot of different information out there and it can get really confusing really fast because many of the tutorial videos have conflicting information and far more resources than the average person has at home, like a wash booth for your screens. After months of trial and error, I figured out what works for me with the supplies that I have. Here is a detailed list of all of the exact supplies that I use! Check out our youtube video to see what my first screen printing setup looked like! We have since moved, so we will be releasing what my new screen printing set up looks like in the new house soon!
I have split up the supplies list into 5 general categories. Feel free to click on them to jump around:
Hardware
For your most basic setup, you are going to need to pick up a good power drill. For me, this was new and scary and I had no idea what I was doing, but it is a must-know in order to set up your exposure unit and printing area. Fortunately, it is fairly simple. All you have to do is drill a few holes and put a couple of screws in.
First are going to need something to drill your screen clamps into, which hold your screen in place when you are printing. This can be a desk, but I decided to drill my clamps into a piece of 2'x4' plywood that is slightly larger than my screens are so that I can easily move my printing setup since I am currently renting year-to-year.
The second thing you are going to use the power drill for is to mount your exposure light. This is going to allow you cure the image you want to print onto the emulsion. You are going to mount this light under a work bench, a desk, a shelf, cabinet... wherever you can get the light to be 18 inches above the surface of the screen. I mounted mine under a workbench.
You want to be careful when you are ordering your exposing light because the one I ordered wasn't attached to a plug- it came with wires sticking out the back! We had to teach ourselves how to do some electrical wiring. This is the exact work light I got, but keep in mind that you will have to do some electrical wiring. What I do like about this light, however, is how there is no cage around the light like many other work light on the market, which prevents shadows from potentially being casted across the screen which can cause uneven exposure of your screen. If you want to follow my recommendations of how far to mount your screen to the light and exposure times for your screen, make sure you get a halogen work light of the same wattage.
Lastly, you are going to want to pick up some UV-free light bulbs and a power washer. The power washer & hose is going to help you clean the emulsion off of your screens when you are done printing, and the UV-free light bulbs are going to help you work with your emulsion without exposing your screens to too much light.
Supplies You Need For Coating Your Screens
After you have setup your hardware, you are ready to coat your screens with emulsion! Screen printing emulsion is a photo-sensitive emulsion that cures when exposed to light. With the work light and the emulsion, you are going to "burn" your design that you will be printing onto the screen. Every emulsion behaves differently under different exposure lights. Some require more time to cure, others require less. It is important to choose one kind of emulsion and stick with it! This is the emulsion I use with my exposure light. I have the exposure times dialed in after months of trial and error. It's a bit confusing, but I will share more details in the "Supplies For Designing & Exposing Your Prints Onto Your Screens" section.
For this phase, first and foremost you are going to need screens! I recommend picking up at least two to start, especially if you want to create multi-layer screen prints. You are going to need to pick up emulsion and an emulsion scoop. Make sure that your emulsion scoop that is appropriately sized for the area of your screen. For the screens I use, here is the appropriate sized emulsion scoop you will need. {Want to learn how to coat your screens? Watch our youtube video using these supplies here}
Since the emulsion is photo-sensitive, it is important to not expose the emulsion to light anytime before you are ready to expose your screen; otherwise, you can accidentally cure the emulsion onto the screen and the design won't "burn" into the screen. These UV-Free lightbulbs will help you see in the dark space you are coating and drying your screens in. This way, you will be exposing your screens and emulsion to the least amount of light possible.
Once you have your screen, emulsion, emulsion scoop, and UV-free lightbulbs installed, you are going to need just a couple more supplies to make your life easier when coating your screens. First, you are going to need will need a paint can opener to help open and close your emulsion lid (trust me on this, it will make your life so much easier). Second, you are going to need 2 or 3 rubber spatulas to help scoop the emulsion into the emulsion scoop and back into the emulsion container when you are finished. You will also need these rubber spatulas down the road for mixing your ink when you print.
Putting it all together, you are going to put some cardboard on the floor just in case emulsion spills onto the ground, open your emulsion using your paint can opener, and place the emulsion in the emulsion scoop using your rubber spatula. Placing the "sharp" side of the emulsion scoop onto the screen, you are going to tip the emulsion scoop up onto the bottom of the non-pond side of your screen, place pressure, and swipe up in one swift motion to create an even coat of emulsion. A lot of people coat screen multiple times both on the pond and non-pond side of their screen, but with this emulsion i find one layer is fine. If your emulsion is too thick, it won't expose properly and your emulsion will crack or rinse out where you don't want it to.
After you are done coating your screens, you are going to put the leftover emulsion in the emulsion scoop back into the container, and then clean up your emulsion scoop and spatula ASAP in your shower or laundry room sink.
Your emulsion will need to dry onto the screen in the dark before you expose it. To speed up the drying process, put a box fan next to your wet screens in a dark place. I recommend a dark, windowless room like a laundry room or storage closet. If that isn't an option I would recommend leaving your screens in a dark corner of a room with a couple of thick blankets or quilts placed over your screen. Ideally, your screens should lay flat when they dry. Your screens should be dry anywhere between 12-24 hours.
Supplies For Designing & Exposing Your Prints Onto Your Screens
Optional
Procreate App
Now that you have coated your screens with emulsion, you need a design to expose onto the screen! Typically I design my screen print on my IPad Pro on the app Procreate. I think it is easier to create a design digitally when creating multi-layer prints, however, you can take out a large sketch pad and create your key image there. A key image is the image you are going to base your screen print off of.
To transfer your design onto your screen, you are going to need mylar, which are large, clear sheets of plastic. I like purchasing big sheets of mylar because I can use them for big designs, and use scissors to cut them down to smaller sizes if needed. You are going to put this sheet of mylar over your key image, tape it down, and trace over the key image using dark colored oil-based markers. It is important that you use oil-based markers on the mylar. Acrylic-based markers will dry and flake off the mylar. I avoid using frosted mylar as it messes with my exposure times.
When you are done tracing your key image onto the mylar, you are going to tape the mylar onto the non-pond side of your dry screen. You want to tape the mylar onto the screen so that the ink-side is touching the screen, otherwise your image will expose backwards onto your screen. I like to tape down the mylar onto the screen using packaging tape or clear scotch tape. If you use painter's tape, the emulsion under the tape will not cure and wash out of your screen, meaning ink will pull through that area of the screen
Once you have your mylar taped down to your screen, you are going to take your screen over to the exposure light, exposing it to as little light as possible along the way. I found that with the emulsion, clear mylar, and the exposure light I use, 12-13 minutes is the perfect amount of time to expose your screen for. If you only have frosted mylar, I recommend exposing your screen for at minimum 20 minutes.
Once you finish exposing your screen, you're going to want to spray your screen with water using a spray bottle and let that screen sit for around 3-5 minutes in the dark. This will help the emulsion under your design wash out easier. You are then going to head over to your shower. You are going to need a handheld shower head like this one in order to rinse out your screen. You want to be gentle, but move quickly as the longer the screen is exposed to light, the harder the screen will be to wash out. Your screen will take anywhere from 3-15 minutes to wash out in the shower.
Once you are done rinsing out your screen, set it aside to completely dry. In the meantime, you can start mixing your ink colors.
I will say, coating your screen with emulsion and exposing your screen for the right time can be very difficult to figure out. This took me multiple months before I was able to pull clean prints like I had imagined. My advice is to not give up and take notes on every iteration until you get it right. If you don't have any supplies yet, I highly recommend at least getting the same emulsion, exposure light, mylar, and following my recommendations of mounting the light 18 inches from the screen and exposing your screen for 12-13 minutes to get similar results as me. I have my variables dialed in, and hopefully it will prevent you from months of trial and error.
Supplies For Printing
By now, your screen is dry and you are ready to print. I typically print onto paper, but you can also print onto fabrics. Keep in mind that fabric screen printing inks are different from paper printmaking inks.
You are going to want to tear down your printmaking paper using your self-healing cutting mat and metal ruler to the size you want your print to be. Then, you are going to want to mix your screen printing ink. I only buy blue, yellow, red, white, black, and transparent base. Typically I go through white the fastest out of all of my inks. With these colors, you can mix any color you want. It just takes practice. I mix my inks in cheap, plastic containers using the same rubber spatulas I used to help coat my screens with emulsion. I suggest mixing at least half of a cup to a cup of ink
I suggest swatching your inks that you mixed and let them dry completely before you print. I have found that screen printing inks dry a few shades darker than they appear when they are wet.
Once you have your inks mixed, you are going to want to cut down and place contact paper wherever is needed on your screen so that unwanted ink doesn't bleed through to your paper. Then you will want to secure your screen into your clamps mounted onto plywood. If you are printing multiple layers, tape a piece of mylar to the plywood so that you can line up your layers.
With a spatula, you will want to apply your ink onto your screen and grab your squeegee. I have a variety of sizes of squeegees- I opt for a smaller squeegee when possible. With your squeegee, you will want to pull the ink across your screen, lift the screen, and then flood the screen, which means to push the ink back to its original place so you can print again! I recommend pulling test prints with newsprint- that way, if your print didn't turn out for any number of reasons, you won't end up ruining your expensive printmaking paper.
Screen printing is messy and you will need to constantly be cleaning up after yourself throughout the process. I recommend having paper towels, baby wipes, rubbing alcohol, and a sponge with a container with water on hand. You will want to have a trash bag open and ready nearby to discard dirty baby wipes and paper towels.
When you are done printing, you will want to rinse the ink thoroughly out of your screen using the handheld shower head. Be gentle if you are planning to print from the screen again- a sponge and a gentle hand is your friend!
Supplies For Washing Your Screens
Once you are done printing off of your screen, you need to remove the emulsion off of the screen using emulsion remover. I dilute my emulsion remover down in a spray bottle with 3 parts water 1 part emulsion remover. You will want to take your screen to the backyard, connect your power washer to a hose, then spray the emulsion remover on the screen. After 30 seconds, you will want to begin power washing your screen until all of the emulsion is out. After your screen dries, your screen will be ready to coat emulsion again!
Supplies I Wish I Had For Screen Printing
The thing I wish I had most are drying racks for my prints. My University had drying racks and it was so helpful in keeping spaces clutter-free when you have a space dedicated for drying prints. For dried prints, I wish I owned a flat file. Right now, all of my prints are stored under my ikea couch- not ideal, but it works!
I would also love to own a wash booth! Wash booths allow you to clean your screen out indoors. Right now, I have to use my pressure washer in the backyard, and often it will kick up dirt into the screen that I have to wipe off with a microfiber cloth.
Lastly, I would love to own a wooden workbench. I have since moved from the house with the wooden workbench, and I loved how we were able to mount the exposure light under the bench and how it allowed us the space to dry the screens. I hope to have one someday!
Final Thoughts
This was definitely a lot of information to take in! I genuinely hope that this was helpful to whoever comes across this! Down the road, I hope to create an entire screen printing course and give you more tutorials on what this all looks like. In the meantime, check out our youtube video of our Screen Print Setup Tour!
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