Silkscreening at home update

For today's post I thought I'd show you some more silkscreen projects I have been working on. As you know, I have been stretching my own screens with old frames and chiffon fabric and using Mod Podge as a screen filler. The drawbacks to this method is that I'm not able to get a super fine mesh and once the Mod Podge is dry it can't be removed from the screen and I have to stretch a new screen for every new image. I have quite a few more silkscreen ideas so I thought I would spend a little money and buy myself the Speedball Silkscreen kit. I figured the mesh would be tighter and I would also get a screen filler that I can remove.

Well.....I haven't been impressed. I'm going to show you a bunch of photos of a current project where I'm trying to use the drawing fluid which is used a resist with the screen filler. The instructions say that the filler may dissolve the drawing fluid if you brush over the same spot more than once. A single swipe with a squeegee is the recommended application. I've been finding the filler so watery and inconsistent that I wish I had just carefully brushed it all on without spending time with the drawing fluid resist. I'm going to need two coats at least. When I used the Mod Podge I only need one coat with some minor touch ups. I will finish applying the filler because I hope to save the frame but so far the Speedball products don't seem worth the extra time.

Drawing fluid in blue and red screen filler. This is the second time applying both because the filler dissolved all the drawing fluid.

Here you can see how thin the filler is. There are holes everywhere.

My screen made with chiffon and Modge Podge. The negative spaces were easily filled.

I've used this screen over and over. I haven't had any of the Mod Podge come off over time.

Below are a couple pictures of a t-shirt design I did with the chiffon fabric and the Mod Podge. In the close-up you can see how the weave of the fabric obscures any pixelation created by the mesh. I'll be printing up a couple t-shirts with this design just in time for Halloween. It's creepy cute, don't ya think?