Once our shirts are done being cut and sewed, its time to go to our screen printer! We are very fortunate to have found an amazing indie screen printer by the name of Will. His printing methods and his passion for the art of screen printing gives Will the DEEPCOVER approval.
Will was kind enough to tell us how he went about screening our shirts. Below is his explanation on the screen printing process and what goes on in the world of Will.
The Screen Printing Process by Will
1. First screens are prepared by cleaning all previous inks and emulsions
2. Develop the emulsion
3. Then you coat the screens with emulsion with the scoop coater.
4. Then you give 20 – 30 min to dry.
5. Once its dry, you get the transparency with the image, or any kind of opaque image.
6. Place the transparency on the screen with the emulation without light.
7. Then you hit the dark with a 750 watt bulb or non-photo blue unfiltered black light
8. After about an hour of letting the screens burn, you clean the screens out
9. Now that the screens are ready, you then get the demo sheets like newsprint paper or anything really and you hit those prints. You do this because you want to make sure that the inks and everything is open right.
10. Then its time to hit the shirts.
11. Once you hit all the shirts, you can then flip them inside out and throw it in the dryer to heat set and then your done!