Couture: Jack

I got a coarser screen (32TW) than what I’ve been using until now (43TW).  I’m using “supercover” paints, which is thicker than what professional printers use.  When printing on dark fabrics, they often lay down a white paint layer underneath the real colour, so they can use a less opaque paint.

But you need better equipment than I have to do stuff like that.  I have basically a cutting board on a floor.  So no registered prints.

For this attempt, I’m using a panel from a page of Jack Survives (first printing, Raw Books) by the wonderful Jerry Moriarty:

Hm.  Did I flip the transparency correctly before exposing?

I did! Nice!

But, once again, I’m not getting full paint coverage at the edges:

See the semi-circular smudge-like thing at the edge there? Here’s what it looks like on the screen:

There’s a round “bubble” going on there.  (Not the shadow at the bottom, but near the stem of the voice bubble.) So something is happening during the washing/drying process.  Am I not washing down the screen enough, so that water bubbles are forming while drying?  That contain particulates from the emulsion?  Is the screen not dry enough before exposure?

Anybody know what this might be a symptom of?  I’m using Speedball Diazo photo emulsion, and I’m washing the screens down with cold water.  I tried using warmer water (like Speedball’s web page says), but that made large parts of the screen just wash away…