Hey everyone I thought I would share a print that I did all by myself. Of course I used one of al’s already burned screens but the camera looks awesome and at least I printed it myself .

As you can see I’ve got a nice baby blue ink color. I knew I wanted blue but I didn’t want to do the blue yudo ink that we had so I thought I’d go ahead and mix my own. I put a nice size bead of both the white yudo ink and the blue on a little throw away plate we had and used a little spatula to mix it up. Then I used the spatula to smear the ink above the image and it was ready to go.

The hardest part of doing this is making sure you have enough of the ink mixed. I always need more than I think I do. This time it wasn’t really a problem because I was only lighting up the blue but I want to start making my own colors and that’s where I’m going to have to make sure I have enough.

I also wanted to try out something that Michelle has been doing a lot of lately, printing two colors on an image. This time I mixed some red ink with a little of the white to tone it down and put it onto the screen with the blue.

I really like the way the colors mix.

So I’ve got a lot of ideas for a new project with my own image next time and can’t wait to start testing it out. Now I only have to learn how to burn my own screen and I’m set .

-Marie

Time to print! I have chosen chocolate brown Yudu ink for my first design.

I started to lay down my bead of ink above my image. It seemed like there was more than enough ink after two passes but Al told me to keep going! By the time I finished adding the ink it seemed like I had way too much ink on my screen. I was sure it was going to push through the screen and ruin my paper.

Next, I lifted the screen slightly and pulled the squeegee across to flood my design with ink. Then, I set down the screen onto the paper and used the squeegee to pull ink across the screen again.

I lifted the screen and a perfect sharp image had printed on my card stock. I felt a real sense of satisfaction. I loved this image and printed it on green, white and beige cardstock.

Flushed with success, I continued with my next image. I flooded the screen pulled across the image and this is what I saw.

What happened! I had used too much pressure and too sharp of an angle with the squeegee and the ink came out under the edges and coated the underside of the screen. Now what? We used paper towels and gently wiped the underside of the screen until it was clean, then we reflooded the image. The next pass provided a pretty good image. I was controlling the pressure better and the angle of my squeegee.

Sometimes, I lifted the screen and the paper did not have any ink at all! I had to add additional ink and flood the screen again to continue. This is what it would look like when I didn’t have enough ink.

I loved the experience and think that the first design is a keeper. I think I would like to see it printed on material. I have a much better idea of what I like and have a better feel for holding the squeegee. I am screen printing!