Yesterday was a VERY long day. I started at 8:30pm and finally went to bed at 5:00am. My goal was to print a shirt with a front and back design, both designs having three colors. I sort of reached my goal but had plenty of bumps along the way.
I only have 4 wood screens so I knew I would have to print the front, then go through the whole process of cleaning the screens and burning the back image on them. What I was not prepared for was all the other mishaps.
First, I was setting up the front design and when I reached the last screen, I realized the wood frame was warped. :( Not a good thing. I have never used this screen so it must have come from the company warped. I will definitely be checking any new screens I buy. I had one more screen with emulsion so I would just re-burn the image on the new screen. Problem solved!
The timer for my exposure unit went off and it was time to check my new screen. I opened the door to my dark room and found SHATTERED GLASS. The piece of glass I normally use for the exposure unit is 1/4 inch thick, 8 1/2" x 11" because this has been the size of my transparencies. I am now using bigger transparencies so I needed a bigger piece of glass. I used a 20" x 24", 1/8" thick glass instead. I taped the four corner down to get better pressure on my image. Not a good idea! The glass had shattered into ten pieces. :( I think it was a combination of the heat, thin glass and the tape. Boy, I can not wait to buy a UV exposure unit.
Next, I needed brown and tan for the front image but did not have those colors. I thought I could mix these colors. This was my first time mixing ink and it did not turn out like I had planned. Wow, that was not fun! I decided to skip adding color to my image for now. I will be ordering the ink colors I need. When I get more experienced, I will try mixing my ink.
After all of these issues, I decided to print my images in all black. I finished the front last night and the back of the shirt this afternoon. It looks awesome. :) I am not posting it online yet because I am still hoping to add some color. This is one of the shirts I am donating to a silent auction on August 28th and I needed to deliver it by Friday. I am definitely happy with the final product so far but look forward to seeing if it looks better in color.
See you soon!
Jeanette
will a piece of glass from a picture frame work? or is that too thin??? yikes!
ReplyDeletePicture frame glass will not work. It's too thin. It will get very hot and then crack. I tried it.....not a good result. :)
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