Twin lense reflex camera
This artist has some very interesting graphics that I enjoyed:
Irina Batkova
This site had some very interesting images:
Depthcore: Digital art and media collective
I found many interesting sites in this article:
33-new-places-to-get-design-inspiration
Do you have any sites that give you inspiration?
One of the first things I advise people to do when working with screen printing and direct liquid emulsions is to use 100% opaque film. This is something that we have become accustom to not having. In the early days of screen printing the film positives were made using a genuine photographic process producing a silver nitrate piece of film that was just absolutely opaque. The density of the image area in the film was 100%. The film was made with “process” cameras or “stat” cameras and processed through small automatic developing machines. As the computer came of age we started to see cheaper and easier methods of producing film positives emerge on the commercial market. The draw back or compensation for the lesser cost is: many computer produced laser vellum products and inkjet or laser films are inferior compared to their true film predecessors. Check out the article called Outputting Artwork To Film on the Catspit website. (more…)
I recently have been exploring the internet for educational information about screen printing and I found Jonathan Monaco of Catspit Productions, LLC I enjoyed his enthusiasm and obvious love of screen printing. He agreed to an interview to tell us a little about himself.
Jonathan how long have you been screen printing?
Screen printing has been in my family ever since I was born. My father has been involved in the sales of equipment and supplies for a very long time. As a result the act of screen printing has been a part of that as well, especially with the people around him. When they hear what he does for a living, they often ask how they can get started printing.
I printed my first tee shirts with my uncle in the basement of my home when I was only 11 years old. He built a wooden table top press and printed his own line drawings of animals in black ink on lighter colored shirts. I helped my brother while I was in high school to build a screen printing shop. He still runs his shop today in upstate New York. He taught me much of what I know about screen printing. The bottom line is I have been involved with screen printing for about 28 years. And textile screen printing is my forte. (more…)
Here’s what I learned when I was using YUDU emulsion sheets. The YUDU tutorial has good information watch it a couple of times before you start. Lots of good information is also found here:
Yudu forums
This site is an excellent resource for YUDUers. Let it be noted that I no longer use the sheets as I find that liquid emulsion is just as easy as the sheets, but that’s just my opinion. Also I do not discount using the sheets either. If the YUDU sheets were not so expensive I may still be using them. They work just as well as liquid emulsion. Their high cost caused me to do some research and I found using liquid emulsion much less expensive. I also found less expensive sources for emulsion sheets. So do your research and save yourself some cash.
The first thing you should do is clean your screen just in case…. There may be some foreign substance on the screen which may ruin the emulsion. Use a bit of dish soap that has ‘NO’ hand softener in it and rinse thoroughly. (more…)
The YUDU is a fun machine for home crafters, however, when it comes multiple color registration it does have its limitations. If you are just laying color over color it is fine and you can get some really cool looking images that way. If you need accurate registration when laying color next to color, then you may have some problems.
I have tried all the tricks I could find to minimize the problems by researching and using every trick others have used. I started with spot color separation images that had registration marks applied by Photoshop. I checked them on the light table then I carefully burned my screens, made sure everything was lined up every time. (more…)
An important part of having good detail in your screen printing is having a good smooth coat of emulsion. For the new DIY screen printer this may seem like a daunting task (it did to me). You can read about our first experience in these two earlier posts.
I learn best when I watch a task several times and see how different people approach the task. So with that in mind, I have included three videos that show how to apply liquid emulsion from You Tube. I thought each had an interesting aspect to share and together give a pretty good look at how it is done. (more…)
Below are some pics of a 3 color image I just did. It didn’t require any real registration basically I just laid the three images over each other and printed them.
The first pic shows a printout of how I wanted them laid out and the colors I wanted to use. At first I had the black camera at the top but it looked too heavy up there so I moved them around till I liked what I saw and printed it out.
Next I printed black images of each camera on Ink Jet transparencies. I then laid them out on the YUDU in their positions and made note where they were in relation to each other. I then burned each screen I was going to use placing each positive in its noted position as I went. (more…)
I’ve had the Swine Flu for the past 12 days. It has all but stopped me from doing anything on the YUDU. I have managed to print something on one of the better days but for the life of I can’t think of what it is. I also came up with an idea using images of three cameras. The pic will be posted below. Last Friday I did manage to help my wife get started on one of her projects. Yesterday I was feeling pretty good so I thought to myself I’ll do the three cameras project. I even got the material ready for printing. All I needed to do was reclaim 3 screens, coat them with emulsion, burn them and off I go. Alas!!!! That was not to be….. I went to bed about 11 pm. Read my book for about 45 min. Turned out the lights and laid there for about 2 ½ hours. This Flu has aggravated an old back and leg injury’s I got long ago. Got up played an online game for a while and went back to bed at 4 am. I woke up at 9:30 with a blazing headache and I knew this day was lost, I spent most of the day in bed!!! Dang!!!! So much for my project, oh well tomorrow is another day. I guess you can’t YUDU if you have the flu!!!!
Cya, AL
Cya, AL
Since, I have started looking up information about the Yudu I have been surprised by some of the hatred that is being expressed towards this handy craft machine.
No one was mad when I bought an acrylic paint set with instruction on how to become a painter. They didn’t yell at me in videos because I bought a book on how to make jewelry. In fact, the last time I bought yarn and a pattern to make a scarf everyone said “what a good idea!”
No one believed that I was going to put all the talented painters, jewelry makers or knitters out of business because I bought materials and instructions!
I love our Yudu because I have always wanted to screen print. I could have used embroidery hoops, made my own screens from reclaimed wood and material and cut freezer paper into my own t-shirt designs-but I didn’t. I like how our Yudu sits in the same space as our scanner used to sit and has the ability to hold the screens we need and provides a stable platform to screen our designs. I didn’t have to use my woeful carpenter skills to make something work.
I may grow and want to try other ways of screen printing in my future; in fact I am sure I will. The Yudu provides me with a good basic start.
So let me enjoy my Yudu. If you are that worried that I am going to put you out of business then maybe you should work on your artistic skills!
Feel free to comment and leave your opinion!
I got this idea from a post I read sometime in the past, a gal used corrugated plastic signboard for her platens. Sometimes when you have more ideas than money, as we often do around here, you use what you have. I had a few pieces of heavy cardboard that I use as backing on my easel when airbrushing, it’s the same double ply cardboard that our YUDUs came packed in. I needed several platens for an upcoming project and I been house bound for the last 10 days with the swine flu, so I decided to use the cardboard. We used it to print on some cardstock and it worked nicely. I don’t expect these to last forever but they work in a pinch.
As you can see in the 1st pic below I traced an outline of the YUDU platen, but so far I have only cut it to length. I cut the holes a bit smaller and pushed them down the platen pegs so as to make tight fit. Also you need to notch the top where the screen holder/frame hinges are.
The 2nd pic shows how we printed card stock. Rather than use adhesive on cardboard (my guess is that some of the cardboard would come up with the card stock or some of the cardstock would stay stuck to the cardboard), I used blue painters tape to line up the stock where it needed to be and taped the corners down.
The 3rd pic shows a piece of light weight duck that I will be printing on soonish.
Cya, Al
