Silkscreen printing is a type of stencil printing in which ink is pressed through a screen. Of course, these days we no longer use silk; we’ve replaced it with a much more durable polyester screen, but the word “silk” is still part of the name.
What makes this technique special is that we can use a variety of inks and choose the effect we want ourselves—for example, we can use inks that glow under UV light or glow in the dark. Other printing techniques cannot fulfill this need of ours.
Another important aspect is the ink itself. In screen printing, the ink isn’t simply applied to the surface of the material—it’s pressed into the material itself—so the print cannot peel off. We’ve tried washing the ink off with a high-pressure washer—the result was that the ink remained in place. This method is environmentally friendly because the garment retains its aesthetic appeal until it wears out completely, meaning you need to buy new clothes less often.
The screen printing process itself consists of three stages:
the idea for a new design, its visualization, and preparation for printing. This process covers every step from the first point drawn in Procreate to the digital preparation of each color.
Preparing the screens. This stage takes place in a wet, darkroom environment: using a special transparent film, a stencil is created on a mesh coated with a special emulsion, which is then “cured” using UV light and subsequently washed with water.
Printing. The prepared frames are loaded into the “carousel” of the printing press; ink is then applied to the stencil and pressed into the fabric using squeegees.
Take another look.
GileAra T-Shirts — Everyday Uniform
