screenprinting 101; the shtümpa way!

Screenprinting is a process that has been around for over a thousand years, it involves forcing ink through a screen which has been prepared with an impermeable stencil, onto a printing surface. In our case, usually a t-shirt.

	1. Design Designing for screenprinting is an art all in itself. We will print your art, please check out our Artwork Guidelines. If you need art produced we do a pretty knock-up job. Check out Graphics,Logos & T-shirts.
	2. Positives Once artwork is approved we separate the colors, and each color is printed onto a film positive.
	3. Screens A good print relys on good screens. We clean each screen carefully using soy-based greywater-safe solvents and have replaced the standard screen degreaser with simplegreen.   •The screens are then coated with a lightsensitive emulsion and set to dry.   •The film positives and the coated screens are placed on a UV exposure unit, which renders the exposed emulsion non-soluble.   •The screen is misted, washing away the opaque areas of the positive and leaving a crisp print-ready design.
	4. Printing Printing involves transferring the ink through the screen onto the shirt.   • The screens are locked into the press, and smeared with ink.   • Each shirt is placed individually onto the printing pallet, and each color is applied separately by pulling a rubber squeegee across the screen.   • The t-shirt is cooked at 320 F, and inspected for quality control. That's it... no problem.