What is the outcome of my first silkscreen layer?
I successfully managed to print out my first photoshop layer of Chairman Mao onto an A2 size inkjet Acetate and looks very clear quality with no splodge marks. After that Glen has had to mix some new emulsion because the other emulsion was out of date so he had done that and managed to project my stencil image onto silkscreen. But… there was something that I was not expecting…
Were there any problems that I faced during this process?
There was in fact quite a big problem that I witnessed and yet again this was not knew to me as I have experienced this problem before… For the second time or maybe so many times running, the technician has made an error within the emulsion and did not put on enough thickness of emulsion which has left it a bit short exposured. Meaning that there was not enough emulsion on one part of my image which is located near the bottom of my image.
There was another problem with the colouring of the green that I mixed for Chairman Mao’s suit and hat. The new inks that I used were blue and yellow and these were used so that I can make a nice dark green. After this, the pigment seemed dark enough but when I used it to print the first 5 prints, it turned out to be a lime green.
How did I manage to get through these problems?
So in the end my technician managed to put some red colour filler onto the gap that was not exposed enough and this managed to work nicely making sure that any ink will not travel through the torn looking gap.
As for the green inks, I managed to mix up some more using exactly the same formula but only adding a little black, making it darker and should be ready to use for the next batch of 10 prints that I hope to do later on.
What is the next step?
The next part of my process will be to do another 10 prints which will mean buying 10 more sheets of fabriano paper and getting my new improved dark green ink which should work better this time. will keep you updated shortly on this outcome.
Feel free to watch this short 5 minutes of detailed commentary showing my first printing process.
What is the latest updates on Chairman Mao print?
I was ready to print out the layers from one of the big printers from the printing room but a problem occurred in which I did not see this coming… The problem was that I originally made this image to a smaller scale of A3 scale and most of the edges of the image were already a bit ridged and not smooth.
How was I gonna solve this problem?
The only way I would ever be able to solve this problem would be to re-size the image to A2 size anyway even if it looks ridged. Then I will go over every line of the image in black by using the lasoo tool and once the lines are selected I will use paint bucket in black to try make them smoother.
I had to zoom in on the image at about 100% in order to make sure that there were no more ridged lines along the image. Then I zoomed back out at about 25% which would be the normal image size when it gets printed out to see if the lines look smooth enough.
What will be the next part of the process?
The next thing I must do is make sure that the rest of the images are all smooth enough and then they will all be ready for printing out. Once all of these layers are ready and are smooth looking I will print them all out on the inkjet acetate and then I can prepare them for the Emulsion process.
Hopefully I will get all of the images/layers done by wednesday I will print them out and should be able to get my first two layers on two silkscreens ready for printing.
Feel free to watch a short 4 minutes of me showing and examining the problems within the lining of my image.
What new updates are there?
I have spoken to one of my technicians just Friday afternoon if there were any new updates about the £90 role of Acetate they will order. The technician said to me that he should be able to print me out a meter size inkjet sheet of Acetate for only 3 pounds! and the ink to print on will be another 1-2 pounds so altogether would cost me £5 per printout. I was very impressed by the price he was offering me and was half the price of what my dealer was trying to sell me.
What will I do now?
Well… it would seem quite obvious with what offer I should go for so I will definitely choose the Universities Acetate because its half the price cheaper with what the dealer was offering to me over the phone. I felt that I might have let the dealer down a bit by sending me the free samples of acetate but I have to go where the price is… If the price is better and the product is just as good quality then I will choose to go for the universities acetate instead, being a student with low income.
What will be the next upcoming process?
I will definitely be the first to tryout this new role of inkjet acetate as I been so kean on wanting to get my hands on the stuff for some time! They said I should be able to print out my first large stencil on Monday afternoon or Early Tuesday. Which is very good news for me right now and just cant wait to get started with my first bit of work for this year…
An Acetate experiment update?
It has finally happened today with some interesting results indeed. I arrived in good time today so that the technician can have a go at printing some of my sample acetate to see what happens to it once it has been printed.
And… Ureka!
There were some very interesting results at the end of it all and it was the kind of result that I had expected to see. Compared to the poor result with the university’s acetate, the dealer’s sample actually proved to be a total success in the end with a high standard in print detail. I was very happy with how it looked so smooth without the gaps within the image, not like the other university acetate printout. every detail was printed according to what I had visioned inside my head so it was a very good outcome for me today.
Decision making time!
Now… I have some decision making time to think about… The university has put in an order for a role of the very same acetate that I managed to get from my dealer which has now made me think twice about what to do… I have to make sure that the prices are fair from the university and I have worked out that it should come to £10 or less to make it worth my while.
If I order the 30 sheets of the A2 Acetate they will proximately come to about £3 each ordering from my dealer and then £7 for the inkjet printing at my university so £10 altogether, which is not bad for doing one or two layers on each sheet.
So when the university orders the role of 30 meters of acetate, I am hoping that they will only charge me £10 or less. Otherwise I will just stick to doing what I had planned originally and just order my own acetate instead and pay for the printing at the university.
What is the next part of the process?
What happens now is that I should just sit back and wait for the price list from my university of how much each printout will cost for the acetate and ink. If it does not come to a reasonable cost for me, I will just stick to plan A to what I was originally planning with a do it myself job because as a student, I also look for a fair price and do not want to be ripped off!
Please enjoy this short 6 minute video of my end result!
Did I manage to receive my Acetate sample?
Yes in actual fact I had received about 3 samples of the inkjet acetate to try out to see what happens to them in my experiment. Although the samples are in A4 size it would be a little difficult to determine the quality of printouts on a larger scale print on an A2 size acetate. Anyhow I guess I could still do this experiment to see what actually happens to it and compare the quality of this acetate to the universities acetates and discover what is best to use.
Something seems different between the two acetate examples.
I have noticed something curious on these examples compared to my university example. The university examples of acetate has a more flexibleness feel and glossiness texture to it which would mean that it would be easier for the ink to slide off it, which it did…
The dealer’s acetate has a more matt finished texture with a less flexibleness feel to it and looks slightly milky blue colour but when I hold it to the light, you can see right through it which is good. I will see on monday how the dealer’s acetate prints out and workout what looks the best quality for photo emulsioning. hopefully the new acetate will look better and then I can order the larger scale ones to do larger scale prints with them.
