How to create your own mini silk-screening starter kit for a fraction of the cost. A guide to all the items you will need to make your own silk-screened clothing.
Believe it or not, you do not need a huge amount of expensive items to do a beginning silk-screening project. You can make your own basic silk-screening kit for a little under twenty dollars. Finding the right tools for this job has never been easier.
For this project, you will need a few inexpensive items. The first of which is an embroidery hoop. A nice sturdy plastic one is fine and works well. The second item you'll need is tulle. Or if you're really on a budget, old nylons would even work in this case! Find the fabric that has the smallest netting available. The finer the fabric, the finer and more detailed the image will be. The third item you'll need is Mod Podge, any kind, as this is just for covering the empty space in your silk-screening. You will also need screen printing ink, I personally recommend Speedball. Some paper, your shirt and your computer are also needed.
Find an image you like that would go wonderfully on your shirt (or other item you are silk-screening on). In Photoshop, erase all the background "˜noise' you can to help you have a cleaner, finer image. To do this, simply get your eraser tool and erase the background around the main part of the image you want. Then, make the image monochrome. Add whatever text you wish and print it out!
Tightly anchor your tulle or nylons stretched taught in your embroidery hoop. Place the embroidery hoop material down onto the image and lightly trace the image onto the material with a pencil. Try to get all the detail you can.
Turn your embroidery hoop over and with Mod Podge, paint all the places you do not want the ink to go through, which is also called the "˜negative space"˜. This will have no color in it when you transfer your image onto your shirt. Put the glue all around the edges of the image so that later it is easier to fill without having to be too careful.
After the Mod Podge dries, turn the embroidery hoop upside down over the shirt you wish to have the image on. Be sure to put something between the front and back of the shirt so it doesn't bleed through! Newspaper or extra fabric works very well.
Apply your ink to the image to transfer it onto your shirt. Try to apply as liberally as you can without completely drenching your item in ink. Remove the make-shift silk screen and follow the directions on your bottle to set the image. The back of your ink should tell you. Speedball brand says to iron it on medium 3 - 5 minutes each side making sure to put a piece of fabric or paper in between the iron and the image. You are now finished!
