{"id":243,"date":"2014-10-26T04:54:08","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T09:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/?p=243"},"modified":"2017-06-11T21:54:33","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T02:54:33","slug":"week-43-2014-make-cool-shirts-phase-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/makecoolthings.com\/?p=243","title":{"rendered":"Week 43, 2014 – Make Cool Shirts, Phase One"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Screenprinting<\/a>

My Ryonet DIY Starter Press, bolted to table in the kitchen. With a 20×26″ t-shirt\/sign platen, and 20×24″ 156 mesh screen.<\/p><\/div>\n

Well, I finally got my ass in gear and started working on things. It wasn’t easy. The apartment is still congested, and I can’t get to anything (Seriously, you don’t even want to know what it looked like behind the camera, let alone in any other room.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Before I give you a tour of the gear, lemme run you through a quick print I did. \u00a0This screen didn’t turn out well, it was under-exposed for whatever reason, but since I knew this wasn’t really a ‘keeper’, I mostly did this to buck myself up by doing\u00a0something productive, as well as to show my mother– who had come by –the process (Not that she didn’t know, both my parents had been making silkscreens long before they’d made me)<\/em>, and finally, to take photos for a montage to use as banners on the MAKE COOL SHIRTS<\/a> YouTube channel<\/a> and Twitter account<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"screen\"<\/a>

It looks fine, but according to the Stouffer scale, it’s two steps under-exposed… Meaning I should double the exposure. That’s what I get for using a thick piece of glass to hold down the film positive, I guess…<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"ggcomet\"<\/a>

Green Galaxy ‘Comet White’, a water-based white ink that behaves and performs more like a plastisol. PVC-free, phthalate-free, water-based, and eco-friendly…and yet it lays down a perfect opaque white, even on black garments! w00t!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"ready\"<\/a>

It’s a really creamy ink, and it’s a wonder to work with… And even as thick as it is, it seems I need a higher mesh-count screen 305, perhaps? I shall have to ponder this, and other questions!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"finished\"<\/a>

The print is pulled!<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m printing these fliers on this nifty 80lb cover cardstock<\/a>, in recycled Kraft. I have it in 8.5×11″ and 11×17″. \u00a0I plan to use this stock for the hangtags for the shirts. \u00a0It’s also available in 70 Text in those sizes, as well as\u00a0in 46pt chipboard.<\/p>\n

\"makecoolshirtsprint\"<\/a>

A print. Not perfect, but pretty good. Maybe I should mask off ‘quality’ until I’ve got the hang of this, lololol<\/p><\/div>\n

Recent acquisitions over\u00a0the last couple months from Ryonet (By way of\u00a0Silkscreeningsupplies.com<\/a>)<\/em> include: Additional 16×20″ 156 mesh wood screens, 20×24″ and screens in 230 mesh as well as 156 mesh. \u00a0A proper 16×16″ T-Shirt platen (It has a neck that centers the shirt)<\/em>, the 20×26″ combo T-Shirt\/Sign platen, and platen brackets, so that with a turn of a knob they’re quick-changeable. \u00a0That neat-o blindingly-green tape you see on the screen in 2″ and 3″ widths. The 16″ scoop-coater, and 15″ squeegee I need for 20×24″ screens. \u00a0And I think that’s about it… Oh wait, no. \u00a0I got a flip-fold! :D<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The first four Green Galaxy water-based screenprinting inks.<\/p><\/div>\n

You can see here the first four colors of Green Galaxy water-based ink; Comet White, Pitch Black, Mars Red, and Neptune Blue. \u00a0It’s been almost a year since Green Galaxy Comet White (Water-based)<\/em> and Meteor White (Plastisol)<\/em> were released, and then almost half a year ago, Black, Red, and Blue water-based, and Black plastisol. (‘Black Matter’, is the plastisol black.)<\/em> A couple months ago, a Green Galaxy water-based ink ‘core’ became available in both\u00a0opaque and transparent, for mixing with pigments, like the Ryonet R20 CMS<\/acronym>, which lets you mix any Pantone color. \u00a0And now, just last week, NINE additional colors hit the store. \u00a0I need roughly $200 to pick up a quart of each. :|<\/p>\n