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My love of punk means ever so often I get the desire to design my own T-shirts. Problem is I can't seem to get a method that actually works. So far I have tried-
Commercial inkjet T-short transfers you print your design onto. They fade loads and have a tendancy to peel. The transfers for white/pale colour clothes are quiet good but I don't wear those colours.
Acrylic paint + a binding substance (can't remember what it was). Was really versatile with a nice finish but just doesn't survive a 40 degree wash.
Material pens, same problem as the paint and with a weak scrawley finish, limits successful designs.
Strange gutta type outliners. Pearlescent colours, pretty tough but prone to pealing. Looks better on bags than T-shirts. As with pens anly using an outline limits designs and it doen't look very professional.
Oh and I tried stitching/ applicé but it took waaay too long. I haven't tried spray paint as I don't have the appropriate saftey equiptment (ie an open space!).
So does anyone have any ideas about a new method I can try? I have honestly run out of ideas.
heya
sounds like an awesome idea, putting stuff on t shirts
i have never tried screen printing on shirts, but trust me, screen printing is easy a child could screen print so dont be afraid to try it
good luck
maybe later you can show us the shirts you make in the art thread
heya
sounds like an awesome idea, putting stuff on t shirts
i have never tried screen printing on shirts, but trust me, screen printing is easy a child could screen print so dont be afraid to try it
good luck
maybe later you can show us the shirts you make in the art thread
Maybe you should try it before you form an opinion.
Screen printing or serigraphy is the oldest method of printing dating back thousands of years in China. Modern screen printing is a complicated endeavour. It isn't quite as simple as you seem to think. While a child may be able to pull a squeegee, there are in fact several disciplines involved. It is a combination of art and science requiring skill and experience. Applications for screen printing are quite diverse and only limited by your imagination. I've spent a lifetime in the Graphic Arts and I take exception to the notion that it's child's play. I suggest you do a little research and try it. You'll see. The more you learn, the more there is to learn. Graphic Arts are constantly evolving. It's all about the expression of ideas--communication, much more than just stuff on t-shirts.
Cal, I always appreciate your positive attitude and sweet spirit. You are a great encourager. I have never tried screen printing and as with all arts or crafts, there are many dimensions and the more you do a craft or work in the fine arts, the deeper one can take it and it does evolve but because of your belief that we as artists on this thread should at least try it for the experience, I believe I will give it a try! Goodness knows I have tried many mediums and I don't excel in most of them, but sure have a great time on my journey! Thank you for encouraging and believing in us.
barclay, i wasnt bagging screen printing or saying its simple, just saying that it is easy to learn, im 16 and i have done it, didnt take me too long to do it lolz.
im saying its easy to learn, i didnt say its easy to master.
My love of punk means ever so often I get the desire to design my own T-shirts. Problem is I can't seem to get a method that actually works. So far I have tried-
So does anyone have any ideas about a new method I can try? I have honestly run out of ideas.
Cheers!
Hey there Templelane! Something kept nagging at me in the back of my mind when I wrote the process I used to paint on the fabric earlier. It hit me that I did use heat to set the paint, after it had dried really well, using a cloth between the iron and the painted area.
You may be familar with Jo Sonya Textile Medium but if not, you might try it. You mix it with the paint, paint your fabric, allow it to dry and use a heat set of 250 degrees on your iron, placing a cloth between the iron and the painted fabric as I mentioned above. I have not used the Jo Sonya Textile Medium but a friend of mine had good luck with it. With the puffer paint I mentioned, you also use heat of course to puff it up. You can even use a blow dryer like you would use on your hair to make it puff.
Have you decided to hand paint or do the screen printing? I am anxious to see what you come up with. I have some photos of some things I did that seems like centuries ago on fabric. The ones I used the paint in several coats, did eventually show some cracking of the paint, not noticable except to me but it came after a couple of years or more of wear and washing and wearing but I hang up a lot of my clothes out of the washer, rather than putting them through the dryer. I will post images later if you would like. As I said, I did these years ago and nothing like you are talking about like Punk but the technique would be the same.
I'd really like to see your work jreble! I didn't heat set any of the stuff I did- perhaps that is the missing step. I don't know when I'll get to do any T-shirts at the moment, life just keeps getting in the way. I'll think I'll use just acrylics again, I'd love to do screen printing again as I used to be good at it but I just don't know how to get the equiptment. A while back there were some screens in a skip (they had holes) thrown out from the art school I was going to salvage but someone else got there first.
If I made my own wooden frame wht fabric are you supposed to stretch across? I've completely forgotten.
"I'd really like to see your work jreble! I didn't heat set any of the stuff I did- perhaps that is the missing step."
Hi there Templelane!
I will post a few images I found. Like I said, these are archaic but I haven't painted on fabric in years so "don't laugh" too hard at the subject matter or my style. Hopefully, I have improved in my art through the years! I do think heat may be the key we visited about on the earlier posts.
When I paint on glass, I put them in a low setting in the oven also which makes me believe using the heated iron with cloth between would set the paint. Maybe that is why my colors did stay true. Hope this helps.
a child could screen print 
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