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Kimberly Irwin

Master Screen-Printing Techniques and Turn Your Original Designs Into Money Making T-shirts.

· Learn how to create a screen for printing

· Discover best printing practices

· Make designs permanent and able to withstand washing and regular wear and tear

· Properly clean and care for your screen so you can use it repeatedly

Discover How Fast and Easy it is to Print Single-Color Images.

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Master Screen-Printing Techniques and Turn Your Original Designs Into Money Making T-shirts.

· Learn how to create a screen for printing

· Discover best printing practices

· Make designs permanent and able to withstand washing and regular wear and tear

· Properly clean and care for your screen so you can use it repeatedly

Discover How Fast and Easy it is to Print Single-Color Images.

Learning how to screen print from home gives you the opportunity to create custom clothing for your friends and family or even to start your own business selling t-shirts with your clever and cute designs on sites like Etsy.

Anyone interested in printmaking, fashion or textile design and the fiber arts will benefit greatly from having screen-printing skills in their arsenal of techniques. It's a versatile skill that develops a little more each time you move dye across the screen. With a little practice you will be confident to tackle intricate designs.

Overview

Suitable for the beginner, through this course of 12 lectures and an hour of video content, you’ll learn everything you need to print single-color images onto t-shirts or fabric.

First, I’ll show you the supplies you’ll need to get started and then how to create a padded work surface to attach your fabric or t-shirts to. Once our workspace is ready to go, I’ll take you through everything you’ll need to know to create a screen using one of your original designs. I’ll show you how to stretch the screen-printing fabric, attach it the frame and make it waterproof. Then I’ll demonstrate how to transfer the design and use drawing fluid to block out the areas of the screen that the dye will penetrate, before finally filling the rest of the screen with screen filler—so dye doesn’t end up where it shouldn’t. Once you complete this course you will have the know how to create almost any design onto a screen and the confidence to experiment with other print techniques

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What's inside

Learning objectives

  • Create a screen for screen printing without the use of a dark room
  • Effectively print a custom design onto fabric or t-shirts.
  • Learn how to care for screens allowing for continued use
  • Make screen printed designs washable and permeant on clothing or fabric

Syllabus

Learn a little about a the course and the supplies you'll need to complete it.

An introduction to the course. What you'll learn and a brief overview of the supplies required to get started.

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A list of supplies you'll need.

Learn how to stretch the screen printing fabric onto a wooden frame and then how make it waterproof.

Tips for creating the design you want to print.

Learn how to easily and accurately transfer your original design onto the screen.

Learn how to apply drawing fluid, a water soluble substance, to the areas of the screen design that you want to print. After the screen filler has been applied, the drawing fluid is rinsed away to reveal the design.

Learn how to apply screen filler to block the dye from moving through the screen in areas that you don't want the dye to penetrate. You'll also learn some of the best practices to remove the drawing fluid from the screen.

Learn how to prepare your workspace and fabric for printing.

Learn how to best apply dye or ink to your t-shirt or fabric using the screen you just created.

Learn the best ways to clean your screen so that you can use it repeatedly. Also covered is how to make your designs preeminent and able to stand up to a washing machine and regular wear and tear.

Find out ways to keep in touch with me. I'd love to see what you've created.

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Activities

Coming soon We're preparing activities for Screen Printing Made Easy. These are activities you can do either before, during, or after a course.

Career center

Learners who complete Screen Printing Made Easy will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:
Entrepreneur Small Business Owner
An Entrepreneur Small Business Owner launches and manages their own ventures. This course is exceptionally well-suited for an aspiring Entrepreneur Small Business Owner, as it explicitly guides you on how to start your own business selling custom screen-printed t-shirts. You will learn the entire process from creating original designs to printing them permanently onto apparel, managing your tools, and preparing products for sale. This course provides a complete, actionable blueprint for establishing a creative, product-based business with low overhead, empowering you to turn your artistic ideas into a profitable enterprise.
Printmaker Artist
A Printmaker Artist uses various techniques to create original art prints. Screen printing is a prominent and versatile printmaking method. This course offers comprehensive instruction in essential screen printing techniques, from preparing a screen with your original design to effectively applying dye onto fabric. Mastering the process of creating permanent, washable prints and caring for your screens allows a Printmaker Artist to confidently produce a series of textile-based artworks. This hands-on experience in a key printmaking discipline enhances an artist's repertoire and creative possibilities.
Textile Designer
A Textile Designer creates patterns and designs for woven, knitted, and printed fabrics. This course provides direct, hands-on experience in one of the most versatile printing methods for fabrics: screen printing. By learning how to create screens for custom designs and master best printing practices, you gain critical skills in applying your artistic vision to physical textiles. This knowledge is fundamental for understanding how designs translate from concept to tangible fabric, making it an invaluable asset for any aspiring Textile Designer seeking to bring their patterns to life with precision and permanence.
Custom Apparel Creator
A Custom Apparel Creator specializes in making personalized clothing items for individuals, groups, or businesses. This course provides the precise, practical skills required to excel as a Custom Apparel Creator. You will learn to transform your unique designs into screen-printable stencils and apply them flawlessly onto t-shirts or fabric at home. The emphasis on making designs permanent and understanding screen care ensures high-quality, durable results that will satisfy clients. This direct approach to textile customization is ideal for anyone looking to produce bespoke garments.
Artisan Craftsperson
An Artisan Craftsperson creates handmade goods, often using traditional or specialized crafting skills. Screen printing is a versatile and rewarding craft technique that allows for the creation of unique, hand-printed textile items, from clothing to home decor. This course provides comprehensive skills in screen creation, design transfer, printing practices, and screen care, enabling an Artisan Craftsperson to produce high-quality, personalized fabric products with confidence. It supports the development of a specialized textile skill, adding depth and uniqueness to one's craft offerings.
Fashion Designer
As a Fashion Designer, you conceptualize and create clothing collections, often incorporating unique patterns and graphics. This course offers practical skills in screen printing, a powerful technique for adding custom designs directly onto fabric and garments. Learning to create personalized screens and apply designs that withstand washing and wear helps you integrate distinctive visual elements into your apparel. This ability to directly influence the aesthetic of your creations offers a significant advantage, allowing a Fashion Designer to produce truly unique and branded clothing items.
Merchandise Designer
A Merchandise Designer creates branded products, such as t-shirts, bags, and accessories, for businesses, events, or artists. Screen printing is a foundational technique for producing custom apparel merchandise efficiently and effectively. This course provides hands-on expertise in taking an original design, preparing it for screen printing, and applying it to t-shirts or fabric permanently. This practical knowledge is invaluable for a Merchandise Designer, enabling informed decisions about production processes, material choices, and quality control, ensuring high-quality, impactful branded products.
Surface Pattern Designer
A Surface Pattern Designer creates repeatable designs for various products, including textiles, wallpaper, and stationery. While this course focuses on the screen printing technique itself, it inherently requires the creation and preparation of original designs for transfer to a surface. This course helps build a foundational understanding of how patterns translate from a digital or drawn medium to a physical print on fabric. It provides practical insight into the technical considerations of pattern application and repetition, which can inform a Surface Pattern Designer's creative process and production awareness.
Educator Arts and Crafts
An Educator Arts and Crafts teaches practical creative skills in various settings, from community workshops to schools. The 'Screen Printing Made Easy' course provides a clear, beginner-friendly methodology for screen printing, making it an excellent foundation for an Educator Arts and Crafts. You will learn step-by-step how to create screens, execute printing practices, and care for equipment, ensuring you can confidently guide students through the process. This course helps build a strong understanding of how to teach accessible and engaging screen printing techniques.
Textile Artist
A Textile Artist uses fabric and fiber as their primary medium for artistic expression. Screen printing offers a powerful way for a Textile Artist to introduce intricate patterns, images, and textures onto fabric, transforming it into a unique canvas. This course provides the foundational techniques for creating screens and applying custom designs, allowing for distinctive artistic exploration within the fiber arts. Understanding how to achieve permanent, washable results means your artistic textile creations can be both visually striking and enduring, opening new avenues for creative expression.
Creative Director Apparel
A Creative Director Apparel guides the visual style, branding, and overall aesthetic direction for clothing lines. Understanding practical production methods such as screen printing for a Creative Director Apparel can be invaluable, particularly for brands that emphasize custom graphics, unique textile treatments, or bespoke collections. This course helps build an appreciation for the technicalities and artistic potential of bringing design concepts to life on fabric. It provides insight into the craftsmanship involved, which can inform strategic decisions about brand image and product innovation.
Costume Designer
A Costume Designer creates garments for theatrical productions, film, television, or themed events. Screen printing may be useful for a Costume Designer to apply custom patterns, specific logos, or unique textures onto fabric, enhancing the distinctiveness and authenticity of costumes. This course provides adaptable skills for transferring various designs to fabric, which can be particularly advantageous for specialized or period costume needs, allowing for greater creative control over visual details and achieving bespoke textile effects that bring characters and worlds to life.
Marketing Specialist Custom Products
A Marketing Specialist Custom Products develops strategies to promote personalized or bespoke goods. Understanding the hands-on production process, particularly for custom items like screen-printed apparel, may be useful for a Marketing Specialist Custom Products. This course equips you with knowledge of how custom designs are created and brought to life on fabric, allowing for more authentic and informed messaging about the product's unique selling propositions, craftsmanship, and quality. This insight into creation can significantly enhance persuasive communication to target audiences interested in personalized goods.
Product Developer Apparel
A Product Developer Apparel oversees the design, development, and production phases of new clothing items. Understanding manufacturing techniques like screen printing may be useful for a Product Developer Apparel to make informed decisions about product feasibility, cost, and design application. This course offers practical insight into how custom designs are created and applied to fabric, which can inform choices regarding material suitability, print quality, and overall production efficiency within the apparel development cycle. It provides a tangible understanding of textile decoration processes.
Brand Manager Apparel
A Brand Manager Apparel oversees the identity, market positioning, and overall success of clothing lines. Understanding core manufacturing techniques like screen printing may be useful for a Brand Manager Apparel to better appreciate the product development lifecycle and marketing opportunities for apparel. This course provides practical insight into how custom designs are applied to fabric, which can inform strategic decisions about product features, quality messaging, and the potential for customization within a brand's offerings, fostering a deeper connection with the product's tangible attributes. A master's degree in business administration is frequently pursued for brand management.

Reading list

We've selected 19 books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Screen Printing Made Easy.
Is an ideal companion for the course as it focuses specifically on easy, home-based techniques that do not require expensive equipment. It provides step-by-step instructions for creating screens and printing on various surfaces, mirroring the course's accessible approach. It highly useful reference tool for beginners who want to see visual variations of the drawing fluid and stencil techniques mentioned in the syllabus.
Published recently, this book offers a deep dive into the specific chemistry and behavior of inks on fabric, which supplements the course's section on making designs permanent. It covers the technical aspects of screen tension and ink application that add professional depth to the course's 'made easy' foundation. This valuable reference for students looking to transition from hobbyist printing to higher-quality textile production.
Captures the 'at-home' and 'money-making' spirit of the course, providing practical advice on building a low-cost studio. It is particularly helpful in providing background on the DIY culture of screen printing and offers alternative methods for those without a darkroom. It serves as an excellent supplemental guide for the course's objectives regarding workspace setup and screen care.
Widely used as a textbook in academic institutions, this book provides a comprehensive overview of printmaking that places screen printing in a broader artistic context. It is more valuable as additional reading for students who wish to understand the professional standards of the industry. The detailed sections on ink safety and screen reclamation provide significant breadth to the course's basic maintenance lectures.
This 2023 revised edition gold standard in the field, offering the most up-to-date information on materials and non-toxic methods. It useful reference tool for troubleshooting common printing errors that a beginner might encounter. While it covers many techniques, its section on screen printing is authoritative and provides excellent prerequisite knowledge on color theory and design.
Is the definitive authority on water-based screen printing, which is the primary method used for home and DIY setups. It adds significant technical depth to the course's instructions on ink application and screen cleaning. It is commonly used by industry professionals who prioritize health and safety in their printing practice.
Acts as a perfect introductory text, reinforcing the course's 'Made Easy' philosophy through clear, jargon-free explanations. It is helpful in providing prerequisite knowledge about the various types of meshes and squeegees available to beginners. The book's structure mirrors the course's syllabus, making it an excellent alternative or review material.
Focuses on the exact method taught in the course: using drawing fluid and screen filler rather than photographic emulsions. It serves as a useful reference tool for specific projects and provides additional tips on registration for multi-color prints. It is highly reputable among hobbyists for its clear, step-by-step visual guides.
Is highly popular among the course's target audience of Etsy sellers and home crafters. It provides practical advice on setting up a workspace in a small home environment, directly supplementing the course's 'Creating Your Workspace' module. It is more valuable as additional reading for those wanting to expand their designs into home decor.
Written by an instructor from the Art Students League of New York, this book carries high authority and covers traditional and digital techniques. It useful reference tool for students who want to integrate digital design into their screen printing workflow. It adds breadth by showing how the skills learned in the course can be applied to fine art contexts.
Is particularly helpful for the course's focus on printing without a darkroom, as it explores many alternative 'kitchen-table' methods. It provides background knowledge on how different fabrics react to dyes and inks. It great supplemental resource for the course's learning objective regarding washability and permanence.
This classic reference tool that provides a quick-glance guide to screen printing terminology and equipment. It is useful as additional reading to help students understand the 'why' behind the 'how' of the course's techniques. It has a long-standing reputation for clarity and breadth across the field of printmaking.
Is essential for students taking the course for professional development or academic reasons. It explains the industry standards for textile design, providing a broader context for the T-shirt printing skills taught in the course. It valuable reference for understanding how to scale a home business into a professional brand.
Published in 2021, this book offers a fresh look at low-tech printmaking techniques that can be done at a kitchen table. It supplements the course by offering alternative screen-making methods like paper stencils, which are even simpler than drawing fluid. It useful resource for students who may find the course's frame-stretching process too advanced.
Though slightly older, this book remains a popular and reputable manual for beginners due to its clear illustrations and focus on simple projects. It reinforces the course's lessons on screen care and cleaning, which are vital for repeated use. It helpful reference for students who prefer a physical manual to accompany the video content of the course.
This is the industry-standard guide for anyone looking to turn the skills from the course into a business. While much of the book covers commercial equipment, its sections on design and marketing are invaluable for the course's 'money-making' objective. It is the most reputable book in the field for professional T-shirt printers.
Created by the founder of Yellow Owl Workshop, this book is extremely popular for its quirky, Etsy-friendly design aesthetic. It provides excellent prerequisite knowledge for students on how to simplify their drawings for successful printing. It is more valuable as additional reading for creative inspiration than as a technical manual.
Is purely for design inspiration, helping students develop the 'original designs' the course encourages. It showcases the work of modern textile designers, providing a benchmark for what can be achieved with the skills learned in the course. It is an excellent resource for professional development in the field of surface design.

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