Making a Silk Screen

I love adding a silkscreened image to my pieces when it seems to fit...I was fortunate to purchase a Thermofax machine many years ago and it remains one of my prized possessions...But even if you don't have a Thermofax.....there are many places who will make you a screen (more on that later) but you have to do the prep work.

First you have to have an image....millions of those all around...it will be hard to choose. I have a picture of an Hibiscus from my garden, loaded into a photo editing program. I use Photoshop Elements but I think many will do the trick.

It is cropped as I only want the image of the flower.....

I also wanted to clean it up a little by lightening the image and making it a little cooler by adding blue. This is easy to do but not necessary...Some programs will have extensive options and others very limited but to start, you can do the basics.

It is necessary to have a line drawing for a silk screen so this image has to be turned into that. In PE, under filter there is an option for Stylize which will lead you to a line drawing.

In Stylize, there is a drop down menu with "Find Edges" which will do exactly that...just hit on that and 

Voila....there you have your flower that now looks like a drawing.

I turn it into a black and white...another option in any photo editing program....Mine is under Enhance.

In PE, it does show you what it will look like as a black and white...yup....I approve and click to make the change.

Not done yet...this has to be printed on a laser printer...no ink jet. The screen is burned because of the toner in a laser printer. You will get the best results if the image is clean with lots of differentiation between negative and positive space - dark lines and white space. This is not the best one for a silk screen which I found out the hard way...but more on that later.

Before printing...resize your image to the size you want your screen to be. If you're using a Thermofax, there is a limit on the size of the screen material.

Way too small...2.22 x 2.4 so easy to fix...

Just type in the size you want ...... I typed in 6" for height and it automatically moved the width to 5.5...hit OK

and print.

The copy would be the place to clean it up before making a laser copy...This particular image has too many gray areas and didn't make a good screen. I really like the image so I'm going back and clean it up; I'll cover up the gray areas and "dust" with a white pencil or white out.

Here is one that came out very good...another flower from my garden...which is printed on fabric also but the same process to make it into a line drawing. This image had so many clean edges...

here is the silk screen which is finished using duct tape on the edges.

Another little trick which can be done with many printing techniques is to print/screen the image on clear plastic so you can lay it on top of your work in progress to see how it works. This is a great "peace of mind" technique to be able to preview what it will look like before the final screening. I buy the plastic at a chain sewing store..usually in the drapery dept and often used to lay over cloths on picnic tables. It runs @ $3 - 4 a yard....

 I also screen the image on a file folder, tuck the screen inside along with the clear plastic copy....and there you have it.  If you are interested in making a screen a good source for having screens made is Jane Dunnewold and her website is www.janedunnewold.com  She will get you started!

Until next time...stay happy and safe!