YuDu Screen Printer: Trial 1

After the Great Computer Virus debacle and a failed attempt at printing my own template (Epson + transparency paper=fail), I finally got to try out my Yudu Personal Screen Printer.  If you aren't familiar with screen printing, the short explanation is that you take a screen, which looks something like this:

 (Well, okay, this is a screen after I've added the stuff to it.  Pretend it is blank) and add an emulsion sheet, then use the machine to burn in the image or words that you want to paint on something.  Here is the machine:

 Once you get whatever you want printed on the machine, you place it on the top, like so:

 You put your paper, shirt, hand, etc under the screen, then you run paint over the screen.  The image is (theoretically) transferred, and you can print as many things as you want with that screen.

You may be wondering why I don't have any pictures of what I painted.  Well... I was able to tell you the fundamentals of using the screen printing machine, but I have yet to master it.  The paint came through kind of blotchy in places so I'm thinking that either I didn't get the emulsion sheet (the dark colored part) on right or I messed up somewhere else in the process.  I may have simply not pulled the paint across the screen right.  But I can tell you what I learned:

1) The tutorial video shows a lady wetting the screen with a wet paper towel.  She made it sound simple, but she LIED!  Wet that screen A LOT.  I messed up the first emulsion sheet because I foolishly followed her directions.  The sheet didn't stick, but I didn't know any better.  The one you see in the picture above still wasn't quite right.  There is a learning curve for this.

2) Not all inkjet printers will print your design on the transparency.  My Epson printer made the words look like text from a psychedelic 60s band poster.  Amusing, but useless.  I had to go get the transparency printed at Kinkos, but that only cost about 85 cents so no big deal.

3) Pulling the ink across the screen isn't as easy as you might expect.  Have something to test on first.

I did have fun, though.  Hopefully, I will have a finished product to post soon!