SCREEN DRYING RACK

Well, my plan for today was to build myself a screen rack but the weather here in Las Vegas did not cooperate with me.  Since I moved my screen printing shop to the garage I can't use my tools in there because of the dust.  I was planning to build my rack in the back yard but it is VERY windy and cold.  The cold is fine but I did not feel like having saw dust blown in my face and eyes.  The weather is supposed to be bad for a few days so my screen rack will have to wait.

At the moment, my drying rack is in the bedroom closet and only has four slots. 

This works fine most of the time but I have a total of 11 screens and at times I need to dry more then four at a time.  Things become very time consuming when I have to wait for screens to dry.  I also want to have all of my screens protected.  I noticed a small tear in one of my screens and I am sure it is from having to shift things around all the time.  The tear does not affect my prints so far but eventually I will need to have the screen re-meshed. 

I do not mind building a rack but it would be nice if I could just buy one instead.  :)

Screen rack from silkscreeningsupplies.com

Eventually I will buy one of these rolling racks but for now I will have to build my own.  :)

Thanks for checking out my blog!
Jeanette



 

RIGHT ON TRACK

I was really on a roll today.  My goal for this weekend was to have one design ready to go online no later then tomorrow.  I am right on track for that goal but I also finished four other designs in the process.  :)  Sweet!!  Once I started working on designs my creativity went into overdrive.  My screens will be dry in an hour or so but I will probably wait till tomorrow for printing.

All the screens I used today were 156 mesh.  I coated each screen with a 1 x 1 coat of DXP dual cure emulsion using the thin side of the scoop coater.   When I burned the first screen I forgot to put weight on top to hold the transparency tight against the screen.  The image turned out fine but I made myself slow down with the rest of the screens so I would not make that mistake again.  I burned the screens for 4 minutes using Ryonets RXP 20 x 24  Exposure unit.

I burned the screens 15 seconds longer then the recommended time but the emulsion on the ink side of the screen was a little slimy when I washed out the image.   From my understanding, that means the screen was not exposed long enough.   Hmmm!  Previous screens I had burned for the recommended time of 3 minutes 45 seconds were slimy, that is why I increased the exposure time for this run.  I will try increasing it another 15 seconds when I burn the next screens and see what happens.

Schedule for tomorrow.....PRINTING!
Jeanette

Making Registration Marks In CorelDraw - THE VIDEO

Here is a video on making your own registration marks in CorelDraw.  I was having a problem getting my registration marks to print on ALL my transparencies.  But with a little research, I figured out how to do it and I wanted to share it with you.  I searched on a few forums and it seemed like lots of people were having this same problem.   I hope this helps!




Thanks for watching!
Jeanette

VECTOR ART IS A MUST!!

Artwork is such an important aspect of screen-printing.  I believe it is the most important part of the process.  Taking a squeegee and pulling ink through a screen is easy but its the image you produce from this process that will make or break your business.  If you were not born with artistic ability, then the artwork part of screen-printing can be a long, frustrating and tedious process.  Do not fear my friends!  There is plenty of art available for purchase and for free.

One option when purchasing artwork is to purchase vector art.  Vector art is ready to go.  It has nice clean lines.  You can use one vector graphic for your image or combine the graphics together to create your image.  If you have a library of ready to go vector art, your designs are limitless.

I just purchased a vector art pack which has over 3400 vector art images.  It will arrive on Monday and I can not wait.   Having this art pack will benefit me greatly with custom orders.  There are so many graphics to choose from, I feel confident I will be able to complete any order thrown my way.

I found my vector art pack at silkscreensupplies.com for $99.  They are having an amazing sale on tons of screen-printing supplies, including vector art packs and clip art packs.  Having a library of ready to go art is invaluable to your business.  It is definitely worth the investment.  Check out the sale at silkscreensupplies.com....supplies are limited!

Thanks for visiting my blog.
Jeanette