Home Business - How to Start a Silk-Screening Business

I love to challenge myself to learn new things. That is what happened in a Goldfields town in Western Australia where we lived.

I decided to make a few different printed T-shirts for myself and that's how it all started and I was hooked

Any kind of business needs research before outlaying too much money. In my instance I started doing a screen-printing course at college. That is how I learnt the basics of how to actually make a screen and how it actually worked.

The best way to learn is to do something similar, but if that is not available then you still need to do some research.

Things you need.

• You will need a wooden frame.
• Silk screen material
• Staple gun and staples
• A rubber scraper
• Paint or ink, the type you use will depend on what material you are printing on.
• When starting out you can use freezer paper for your first template

The size of your wooden frame will depend on the size of your intended project. Although if you make it a bigger you can create bigger prints. So, keep that in mind.

Cut 4 pieces of wood, or get someone to cut them for you. Lay them on a flat surface and using a staple gun staple two pieces together on the corners then add another piece and do the same until you have a square. Turn it over and staple on the other side to make sure it is strong, you don't want it to fall apart in the middle of making your first creation.

When you add the silk onto your wooden frame you need to make sure it is pulled tight. Staple one side of your silk onto frame, now pull it very tight and staple it to opposite side.

Make sure you keep it even without any bulges in silk. Now do the same on the other two sides. Again, make sure it is even and very tight.

This can be a text print or a flower, advertising or whatever print that you want to create.

This can be made from a printed stencil on the computer once created you can print it out on freezer paper. You can use a Cricut machine to cut out your stencil or manually cut it out by hand.

Then peel off the back of paper and stick in place on top of the silk of your screen frame. Make sure you put this on the inside, so the wood is flat on table. Tape all outside areas that you do not want any ink to come through from your screen.

Place your shirt or whatever you want your print on underneath, making sure it is centered. Line it up so if you want to add another color it will go exactly in the right place.

Start with a one color print

Place your paint on the screen and spread it out firmly over the area you want printed with your rubber scraper or whatever you want to use to spread paint.

Lift carefully making sure you do not spread any paint over your T-shirt.

And that's your first attempt at screen printing completed. That was not too hard was it?

When using two or more color prints you need to clean your screen between prints. Do all the one-color prints first. Let me all dry thoroughly then prepare your screen and the new color for the second print.

This is where the technical part starts. The first print was easy. But now you have to make sure you put your screen EXACTLY in the right place so that it matches where the first color was placed. You DO NOT want the colors overlapping on top of one another.

Finding clients is not always as easy as it sounds. It will depend on the town or country that you live.

I started out, printing T-shirts for different Hotels. I also joined sporting clubs and did a variety of different things that businesses wanted. One was doing Ribbons for the country towns show.

Wherever you live there are opportunities waiting if you look for them. So, what are you waiting for start practicing and see what you can do. You may surprise yourself.