Screen printing is not a very complicated printing process. It is the oldest form of textile printing, perhaps even more than 2000 years old.
Sure, there are modern options for customizing t-shirts, all kinds of PVC foils, thermal transfers, but for us the most important thing is that we like what we do. And that we like the finished product, otherwise it's not even worth mentioning. You can't sell a client something that you wouldn't even want to wear.
The other day I was playing around in Photoshop for the sake of childhood memories. When I finished putting everything on the page I thought for a while. What do I do with this beautiful image and how do I manage to put it on the textile in an efficient way, without any hassle and still manage to achieve a nice result?
I separated the colors into CMYK, converted them for screen printing, and went into the workshop to develop. I had some stencils ready for development, and I gave it a go.
The result is miraculous, I admit. In this picture, it's just a test t-shirt that I had crumpled up in a special t-shirt box.
Of course, during the creation process, I got a little carried away and managed to destroy two stencils. So I'll have to develop them again. I put the emulsion screen over the t-shirt which was heated to 200 degrees Celsius. Of course, the emulsion melted and came off the screen. It's my fault, I wasn't patient. I liked the first print and continued with two more and tried to inject too quickly. The important thing is that I know what I did wrong.
The next day I thought about it for a bit and couldn't find the courage to order 10 white t-shirts from the supplier. I simply didn't feel like screen printing anymore. I was afraid of making a mistake. I decided to work with what I had in stock.
I had 15 black t-shirts lying around and I found some A4 heat transfer paper from a Romanian supplier in a drawer. Let's see what I can come up with with an iron.
I've never been the type to work "by the book" - I've always tried to streamline, optimize, and reduce costs. If I can put this image on a black t-shirt without that special press that all the customization shops in the mall have, then I've halfway succeeded. I plugged in the iron and aligned my image. And look what came out.
Yes, ok... maximum fidelity. I'm not talking about colors - quite vivid, with shadows, nuances, not like my CMYK print from yesterday. And I feel like I discovered America. High Definition, as some would say.
But it's not right. When you put your hand on the t-shirt, it's like you're holding a piece of laminated paper in your hand. It's not comfortable. If you can get over that aspect then ok. But God forbid you go outside in the summer with it, after 3 minutes of sitting in the sun it will get hot and it will feel like hell. It's horrible to print something like that on fabric. On a backpack or other medium it would have been ok, but on t-shirts... honestly I don't like it.
So I went back frustrated to my screen printing in my studio. I don't think I like heat transfer paper. Some people do.
A screen-printed t-shirt is something else. When you put your hand on the print, you can't feel it. That's if you only have one color. If you have 3-4 colors on top of each other, they are felt, but not as plastic. I use water-based ink, which enters the fiber and effectively colors the fiber of the t-shirt. In other words, the print lasts as long as the t-shirt. Whereas the one on the thermal transfer paper... will eventually peel off. After 100-200 washes, I have no idea. But I know for sure that it won't last as long as the t-shirt.
