Best way to make your own screen print tees?
Question:I want to get into make screen print tees at home for profit. What is the best way to get started?
Answers:
my ex roommate and i made 10 shirts using a speedball kit. he had experience doing it from his art school. We started on friday and didn't finish until sunday. they were two image shirts, seperate fronts and backs. One color only. It wasn't easy. I'm sure a bigger run could be done, we just didn't need to. That also included time with the imulsion setting. IF you were going to have a group of screens that you would reuse you may have better luck, we only had one. The speedball kit is the only commerically available hobby kit that i know of and retails for $50 with one screen the squeege imulsion fluids and three 4 oz tubs of ink.
The commercial ones are better for serious work because the greens are held in place, but those cost thousands of dollars even used.
A good suggestion would be to find a local screen printer and get a job there. Put in some time, then once you are pretty well liked and known by the boss ask if you could buy your own screens and providee the materials, and make a line of shirts. some stores (that sell shirts as well as make outside shirts) may not only let you do this but may consign your product. The same roommate that made shirts with me works with a screen print shop and they sell his designs in their store.
It's certainly not an easy thing, and doing it for profit may prove difficult. I think for the ten shirts we made, after all was said and done, and taking in to account that the speedball kit we got was a "gift" from the michael's chain of hobby stores, i think we ended up paying about $10 a shirt with all the other supplies we bought.
try going to a printer store there is a special paper you can buy and that lets you iron the picture to the shirt the paper is expensive but you get alot from it
Meet someone who does it and learn first-hand. There's plenty of finesse involved, as with any craft, and it's hard to learn that either on your own or by just reading how-to guides. Screen-printing is more difficult than you'd think.
If you do a search on www.youtube.com they have several step by step video on how to do what you want to do
More Related Questions & Answers...