Screen Printing Class at Vividbraille

I have never had the chance to screen-print my own shirt, but enjoy the designs I often see in stores. Not knowing how the process really works, I bought a deal for a screen-printing class at Vividbraille, a shop located on Damen Ave. The shop features designs of the founder, Brock, who first started screen-printing shirts in Michigan before moving to Chicago to open his own store. Vividbraille features lots of clothing by the shop owner, as well as other Chicago based designers, and carries shoes, handmade bags, as well as accessories.

The Process

Our instructor started the class by explaining the process of screen printing a t-shirt.

The first step is to come up with a design. For our class, there were three designs we could choose from: A wolf biting a hand, the word ‘HYPE,' and the name of the store ‘Vividbraille.' Designs are printed on a special kind of paper that feels almost like plastic.

These designs then go into the next step in the process: making the screen. The design is placed over a mesh screen and covered with a photosensitive emulsion. Our instructor explained that the mesh can have different size holes depending on how detailed the image is (the more detailed it is, the smaller the holes in the mesh). The designs are exposed to light in order to block out only the image, leaving all the other holes in the mesh closed up. Once this process is done, the image is taped to a board on the printing machine (see picture below).

Now comes the part we were able to do – the printing! We each picked a tee shirt in our own color choice and attached it to the board, making sure it was centered. The screen was lowered part of the way to test where on the shirt the design would fall. If necessary, adjustments were made.

Next, we lowered the board onto the tee shirt. On each board, a squeegee was set up in order to move the paint over the design and push it through the holes in the mesh. Our instructor explained that we had to make sure we put a lot of force into it in order to ensure that our design came out on the shirt. We pulled he squeegee toward us several times, pushing the paint onto the shirt.

Once we felt we had gone over the design enough times, we lifted the board back up to see our design! The last step in the process was to feed the t-shirt through a drying machine in order to make sure the paint stuck to the shirt. Once they came out the other side, they were ready to be worn!

The Finished Product

After the shirts came out of the drying machine, we ended up with some great custom made clothing! How many people can claim they hand printed a design onto their shirt?

Bonus!

If it weren't cool enough that you get the chance to create your own custom t-shirt, the class is also BYOB! Customers are asked to bring along their choice of an adult beverage or any small snacks that they can sip and munch on while waiting for their finished product. Everyone there for our class took advantage of the BYOB feature, and enjoyed beer or wine through the duration of the lesson.

The Deal

I Spent: ~~$158~~ $90

I Got: Screen-printing class for two with two t-shirts

Click HERE to create your own shirt!

Choose from a class for one, two, or four people