Fabric screen printing

Prior to the fabric screen printing induction, to practise the printing method I decided to design and print a cushion. To give this brief purpose, the print will be for my mum. Having an audience to design for makes it simpler in ensuring that the design is appropriate. 

As it is approaching christmas I decided that this is the theme that the design would work around. Rather than going for something obvious I wanted the design to be personal to the receiver. This then led me to sketching a range of different designs in my own illustrative style. The most successful design was the robin. This design would allow me to experiment with one or more colours for printing. 

To prepare the design for print I then went onto use Illustrator to create a layered image of the design. At this stage experimentation with colour and design was important so that it would work successfully in print. Consideration was also taken into the thickness of the line length.



Illustrator:

Screen Printing:

Preparing the document for exposure is an important element of this design. From having previously experienced a bad exposure of the image, it was important that the pigmentation of the black ink on the paper was important. This would ensure for a clear exposure of the image on the screen. 

Learning again from previous experience, tests were completed before the final print of the design. As there are three colours involved in the image, three colours were used in print; brown, red and black. Due to the three different colours involved in the print, it became more complicated when printing. These complications then led to errors being made in the print. For example, areas of ink being printed where they were not supposed to. As I had exposed each section of the design onto the same screen, this meant that when printing, the design that I wished to not be printed had to be covered. This was very time consuming as well as the screen also having to be washed after each colour print. Having to separate and cover the separate designs led to certain print 'mistakes' being made due to the covering not being 100%. Although this adds to the handmade appearance of the design, it meant that the print was not as neat as I would have hoped. In the future this will mean that a bigger screen would be used to ensure that there is enough space for covering and therefore reducing the chances of mistakes being made. 

Through discussions with peers around me at the time of printing and then the technicians, it was concluded that the large black mark would not come out any more than it had through sponging with cold water. This is an error that I will be able to learn from in the future, and to ensure that all other areas of the screen that have been exposed will be covered before printing individual sections. However, through this I also learned that using a certain method of home cleaning can remove these marks. 

The outcome.