March 3rd, 2008
Beeping in the Atmosphere
(7 votes, average: 4.71 out of 5)
Loading ...Coming soon to a future near you: Everybody Beeps. The story of a young robot coming to terms with his body’s uncontrollable noises.
- Good old fashioned beep hatred.
- Are your beeps making you less productive?
- There will be beeping well into the apocalypse, with a hint of police maneuvers.
- Even Buffy beeps.
1, 2, 3… FAIL!
I’ve been keeping the cartoons a little minimal lately because I’ve been working hard in the secret underground lair to bring you the next phase of WTTF. That next phase is of course… screen printing. How’s it going? pretty slowly. Wanna see what happened?
I hear there’s quite a learning curve, so I’m just going to keep trying different things, and try not to suck.
At some point there will be t-shirts. I’ll keep you posted.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 am
I used to screen print for a living! I feel your pain! If you need any advice, feel free to contact me! I know how much of a pain in the ass it can be!!!
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:49 am
yay! t-shirts! i want one, but i’m poor! haha, seriously, i’m excited. make some stickers, too.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:49 am
Out of pure curiosity, why not use something like Cafépress? Are the prices there just too steep in your opinion, or mayhaps you just desire to do it yourself that much? I’m not saying it’s bad to do it yourself, but there are other ways.
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:43 am
I used to screen print as well. I got to skip most of the learning curve because the owners told me all the settings to use and how to figure how much to change the settings according to the pattern.
I’ve forgotten all the details like 10 years ago, but I remember how much of a pain it was to figure out. Good luck!
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:49 am
I knew there’d be some screen printers reading this cartoon. Hai Neal! If these next few days of tests don’t work out, I might be shooting you an e-mail.
I’m not using cafepress for a few reasons:
1. The quality of their shirts does not match the high price you have to pay. Screen printing will allow me to keep the cost at around $15-17 dollars.
2. I like being in control, and that means I can use more enviro friendly materials, like water based inks and recycled screens.
3. I’ve always wanted to learn how for pure enjoyment.
4. I’ll make more money if I do it myself, and it will cost me less to produce a larger variety of designs.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Plus he can print the design where he wants and not where cafe press says he can print. ERGO- an armpit design or labels for the more conventional ideas
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I am in a similar position as you. There are definite advantages to screenprinting and major drawbacks. Most of the drawbacks come in time and effort figuring it all out. I am still in the industry (I now manage an embroidery company… it’s pretty sweet… if there is anything resembling work, I give it to someone else… but I digress). The coolest thing about screenprinting is the whole, “I made this myself” feeling you get when you finally figure it out. On the other hand there is a new process out called direct-to-garment printing (utilized by cafe-press and others). This allows you to print piece-by-piece, directly onto the garment with the same affects (I can’t remember if it should be effects… I need to go back to school) as screen printing. I agree with the whole control issue in that you cannot pick and choose which specific garment you can have printed… which is the case with Cafe-Press. I am looking for other manufacturers that have the ability to print garments directly, ans as soon as I find a suitable candidate, I will pass the information along. Good luck in figuring out the whole screenprinting process and know I am here if you need any questions answered!
~Tertle AKA Neal
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Brady says he MIGHT be able to get you a light that will burn the screens easier. He’ll look into it.
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Neal, My better half has his own business that is a direct to garment printing business, if you are looking for someone to do this e-mail him at atgcolor@yahoo.com (his name is Brady)
March 4th, 2008 at 4:37 am
@ Jeremy & Stephanie:
All valid reasons, I’ll admit. XD If you’ve the means to do it, I suppose it would be better to have that manner of control. Best of luck1
March 4th, 2008 at 9:15 am
[...] an unrelated topic, I have the best readers. Y’all have been awesomely supportive in my quest to learn screen printing, and I offer many thanks. I’m going to burn in a design again tonight. I’m pretty sure [...]
March 4th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
One of the best sources for light is the sun. Seriously… when something happened to our light table, we’d stick a piece of glass (or plexiglass) over the screen and sit it out in the sun for 10-15 minutes. Especially good if it is a nice sunny day.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Unfortunately, the sun is hard to come by in Buffalo. Especially this time of year. I expect to take full advantage of that information in the summer though. You can’t beat free sun energy!
March 4th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Mm, screenprinting can be a real bitch. Sometimes booze helps, sometimes it clogs the mind like a screen. Whatever light source you use, it’s best to start with a short amount of time and work your way, instead of in reverse. Many manufacturers have spec sheets on their websites you can refer too, but take my advice, they are often off. (my recommended burn time according to manufacturer is 4 min 48 secs; my actual burn time is 1 min 45 seconds. So, err lightly.)
March 5th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Is that what’s happening, could I be burning it too long? When I go to wash it off with warm water from my faucet sprayer it washes out the pattern but then chunks of stuff that is supposed to be hard comes off too… I figured I just hadn’t burned it in long enough.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
If the pattern that you want to stay in is washing out, then you’re not a) letting it dry completely through enough (overnight is best) and/or b) not exposing it to the light source long enough.
Over exposing your screens, however, causes the whole screen to not wash out, which is a worse bitch. So your quest is to find the happy middle.
Make sure your positives are dark, too.
April 9th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Another thing is to pay attention to the size and shape (as well as angle) of half-tones if you are using shafing or gradients. Additionally, you should be using a higher mesh screen if this is the case. A low mesh screen wouldn’t hold the half-tone dots as well (or at all) as a higher mesh screen. Although, it looks like you are using solid lines in your art (but I cannot tell 100% from your image). What mesh screen are you using.
Also, the person who commented above me is 100% correct and finding the perfect mix between over and underexposing can be a real bitch (pardon the language)!
Also, we used a box fan to dry our screens faster… both after we put on emulsion and after we washed out our screen. Old newspaper also helps (as a cheaper version of paper towels) to dry the screens after we washed them out.
I think thats all I have for now. Good luck!