First Attempt at Screen Printing Repeat

I should have started off with something more simple. Instead I chose a design that had a diagonal repeat. I wish I could take credit for the design. But, I can't. I downloaded it from Brusheezy.

Here's my markings for screen placement.

I used spray adhesive to hold down the paper. Since I was using the kitchen table, I didn't want to apply the spray adhesive directly onto the table.

I covered the table with freezer paper than applied the spray adhesive to that. A special thanks to Angie for the freezer paper tip ... it worked great!

Below is a picture of the underneath of the screen. I propped my screen up with quarters (about 1/8" off contact). I have noticed that with thinner ink and paper, maintaining off contact is not as important as with thicker inks and fabric. Plus side to off contact ... I can move my screen around the paper and place it down without the screen touching the printing surface. Which turned out to be very important in lining up my lines.

What you see in the picture below:

• First print/color done. I was getting ready to print the second layer. I used stencil screen printing method.
• Freezer paper covering my table.
• Stencil is under screen with marks ready to line up with screen.
• Screen taped and ready to go.

Here is a close up of the final print. This was practice for me. It was my first attempt at repeat patterns. I had lots of practice with a big piece of paper. The first few prints didn't align as nice as the others. When I went to do the second print/color, the registration wasn't that good with the first ones I originally printed. Toward the end you can see my progression. The picture below is not perfect registration, but it's pretty dead on.