Now its time for light box magic! Proud to say that like everything else in my workshop, i built this myself. The bulbs are unfiltered black lights. You need to use some form of UV light to develop the screens. Some people will even just take the screens outside and leave them in the sun to burn the image!
With the lights still out, I place the vellum sheet with my image on it on top of the light box. Then I place the screen on top of that.
Everything has to be lined up just right.
Next i layer on top of the screen: a black cloth to dampen the light, followed by a piece of plywood to hold the screen completely flush with the light box, then I pile a bunch of random weight on it, and finally, flip the switch!! Light stays on for about 4.5 minutes for the screen to fully develop. What happens is that the emulsion that was touched by the light adheres to the screen. The emulsion that was covered by my design and received no light, will wash right out of the screen.
Here the screen is fully developed and placed in the washout booth, ready to get sprayed down.
Say hello to the design coming through! “Hello design!” Would have taken more pictures but I didn’t want my camera to get wet. After the image is fully washed out, I place it in front of the fan to dry.
All that’s left to do before I can print is to tape up the edges and if there are any tiny holes or other blemishes, tape those up as well.
As you can see I’m still getting the whole process down. I think I over exposed when I developed the screen and then used too much water pressure to clear the image out. Hence the screen was blown out a bit. A little tape fixed that up though. Now the fun part!! Finally I get to print!!
