Some screens I'll be using today.

Not Exactly High Tech

I'm going to be making a post soon about how I make my screens from artist's stretcher bars.  Here are some of the items that I use in the process.

What you see there is:

1. A rubber mallet. For showing those stretcher bars who is the boss.
2. Wood glue.
3. A canvas stretcher.  Fun to use use the stretcher in one hand and the stapler in the other.
4. A staple gun and light duty staples.
5. A heavy duty staple remover. Mistakes happen, and frames get re-tightened or reused.
6. A thread counter (used to check alignment and the thread count of the screen fabric).

I don't need no steenkin' press!

Actually, I do - but I can't afford it at the moment.  Instead, I use something that I did up myself.

I also have a Yudu machine that I've had from the very beginning.  I use it sometimes, but rarely with the screens that come with it.  Mostly as an elevated platform to pull the prints using screens that I've made, as a light table for drawing, or as an exposure unit. Those little hooks on the sides are used to stretch some large rubber bands across the shirt/platen combo to hold it in place - I just wrap the rubber band around the whole thing on the bottom.

A couple of screens I'm getting ready to use today.

It's an Atheist theme, apparently

These aren't masked off yet.  You'll notice that the alignment with the frame isn't totally perfect on the Invisible Pink Unicorn one.  That's not really significant since the shirt and the homemade platen that I use aren't fixed.  I can adjust them as necessary.

Not super fancy looking, but they get the job done.