Random Thoughts

For my final (I think) prints, I’ve selected a couple of Charles Burns drawings.  I wanted to experiment with multi-coloured, but “non-registered” prints.  That is, prints that don’t require sub-millimeter precision:

Instead I just mask off areas with tape and print the same screen several times.  That means that I have to wash and dry the screen between each colour, but I don’t have to do two exposures.

Look at the colourful result!  Perhaps a bit too colourful.  I should have experimented more in The Gimp with combinations.

But: Success.

I’m still not getting a totally consistent production line.  I printed a large Krazy Kat image, and after exposing it, it washed off fine.  Except at the end, where I washed a “w” off I wasn’t supposed to.

So I cut a new one from packing tape and stuck it on.

The result was fine:

But still odd.  Perhaps I’m not letting the emulsion dry for a sufficient amount of time?  This dried for like four hours…

I’ve been washing off the screens in the bath tub.  The paints are water-based and rinse off pretty easily, but it’s annoying having to wash off any spatters.

So I’ve been looking for a big washing tub with an outlet that I could place directly over the outlet in the bath tub.  And I’ve been unable to find any.

Then, today, it struck me that I do have a drill, and big plastic packing crates are easy to find.

Duh.

I wanted to screen-print onto the sleeves of a shirt.  It turns out that’s not trivial:

When the fabric is bumpy (the seam down there), the screen doesn’t make contact properly with the fabric, which makes the print crappy.

So I need something soft-ish under the shirt to ensure proper contact with the screen.  Something rubbery, perhaps…  I’m not quite sure what, but I’ll visit a hardware store tomorrow and see if I find something.

After printing, you can either reclaim the “silk” (i.e. monofilament nylon) by washing and scrubbing a lot, or you can just pop the silk off and staple a new silk onto the frame.

I prefer the latter, because then I can save the silk for imaginary future use.  Yeah, like I’m ever going to reprint any of these shirts…

Anyway, the main problem with stapling silks is unstapling the silks.  A normal staple remover doesn’t work, because the staples dig into the wood, and you have to dig into the wood, too, to extract the staples.

Enter this tool I just got:

I’ve removed the staples from two frames now, and it works pretty well.  I’ve been using a teensy flat-head screw driver until now, and I’ve been stabbing myself a lot.  This tool gives me a lot more control.  It’s totally stab-free.

But it’s not a wonder tool — removing the staples with this tool is slower than with a screw driver and a pair of pliers.

My arms like the lack of wounds tonight, though, so I’m going to continue using it.