Screen Print: Step Two – Coating the Screen

Posted on: September 27th, 2014

To expose the screen, you must first coat it with emulsion. Emulsion is kept in a yogurt container in the darkroom. You will need the scoop coater, a card (for clean up) and newsprint. Newsprint should be placed under the screen and beneath the coater when pouring emulsion into the trough. Wear gloves. You don’t want emulsion on your skin. Assemble the scoop coater by securing the blue ends. Pour a generous amount of emulsion evenly into the trough. Place your clean screen against the wall, slightly angled with the piece of wood. Rest the scoop coater’s sharper edge against the bottom of your screen and tip the coater until it pools evenly across the screen. Position the coater completely against the screen and apply pressure as you quickly pull up. IF you miss a spot, just go over the screen again with the scoop coater. If your emulsion is too thick, go over the screen again with the scoop coater, but make sure you are not putting any additional emulsion on just use the edge to clean things up. You will then use the card to even out the edges, where emulsion has built up.

Once your screen is coated it will take about an hour to dry.

While your screen is drying you can clean! Take one end off of the scoop coater and use the card to put the extra emulsion back into the emulsion container. Clean it out to the best of your abilities. Then clean the scoop coater thoroughly in the sink with water and a sponge. Be gentle with the ends as they are plastic and can break. Scrub the scoop coater; make sure ALL the emulsion is cleaned off. Emulsion that is left on and dried gets sharp and can rip the next person’s screen.

Categorised under: Screenprinting