Hey, pennant guys

[Domer05]

Originally Posted by ooo-ribay

Good info, as always.

We did some silk screening in HS (I think) shop class. I seem to remember using an X-acto knife to cut the stencil. What do you mean by “burning” a screen?

The Seattle screen is cool….do you own it?

The screens were "burned" because the process involved exposing the screen to a UV light source before performing a "wash out" resulting in the stencil you saw above.

That green substance you see, called "emulsion," is photo sensitive. It's dry/hardened now; but, when it was first developed, the artwork/graphics would have been transferred to transparent paper; then placed atop the dried emulsion inside a dark room. After exposing it to a UV light source for a few minutes, the exposed parts of the emulsion would harden and become waterproof. The unexposed areas (covered by the artwork/graphics) would remain, however, water soluble. When hit with a blast of water, this area of the screen would blow out, creating holes for paint to pass through.

That's how these stencils were made....

[ooo-ribay]

^^^^ pretty much how you do yours, yes?

Am I dreaming in thinking I somehow used an X-acto knife in shop class?

[Domer05]

Exact same process. With a lot less fancy equipment.

...and no X-acto knives.

[ooo-ribay]

Originally Posted by Domer05

Exact same process. With a lot less fancy equipment.

...and no X-acto knives.

My last word on this…..I could have sworn we cut some sort of film with an X-acto knife…maybe to make a “negative” to bond to a screen? I dunno…it was a looooong time ago.

I just checked screen printing kits on Amazon….none of them include X-acto knives.