SpeedballIntermediate Screen Printing Kit - Complete Fabric Starter Set with Inks, Emulsion, Frame & Tools - Ideal for DIY T-Shirt & Textile Prints

For the price, this is a great screen printing kit for beginners.My kit arrived Sunday, two days ahead of schedule... I was amazed! I am lucky that everything arrived safe and sound; no open jars. I delved head in, and used the photo emulsion for my project.I am posting some photos of my silkscreen project, so don't forget to take a peek.This is what I did:1. Went out shopping for a bug light, t-shirt (washed - no softener), pane of glass and had my art printed at FedEx Office.2. Cleaned the silkscreen with Dawn and dried with a hair dryer.3. Coated the silkscreen with the Diazo photo emulsion and let dry (4 hours+). Done in a dark room only lit with a bug light.4. Taped my artwork to the bottom of the silkscreen and held it flat with the glass pane. Kept in box, away from light.5. Took the box outside at noon and exposed for 2 minutes 50 seconds. Closed box and ran to the sink.6. Lightly sprayed both sides of the silkscreen with water and waited two minutes. Then sprayed water at full blast to remove emulsion. Patted dry and took outside to post harden for 5 minutes.7. Did the Balki Bartokomous happy dance.8. Used painters tape to close gaps around emulsion on silkscreen.9. Printed t-shirt and quickly cleaned tools and silkscreen.10. I heat set the ink with an iron. Five minutes on front and 5 on back.11. I washed the t-shirt again to test for proper heat set. It passed!12. Wore the t-shirt and fooled my friends into thinking I had bought it. :-D

If you have never done screen printing, this kit is for you. I had a small project that would have cost more to order than this kit costs. I have a vinyl cutter so I didn't think that I would be using the photo-emulsion. After your first project you look for things you want to screen print.Unlike old school printing inks that get everywhere and are impossible to remove, the new water based inks clean with soap and water. This is something you can do in your kitchen and not have worry.The photo emulsion is the scariest but required for fine detail. Don't let youtube videos scare you. What you need to know. The bottle of photo emulsion is not a one time use. It will store in your fridge for up to 4 months after being mixed. It becomes light sensitive when dry. This means you don't have to buy a dark room light to apply it to your screen. Simply dry your screen in a dark room (interior closet works just fine. After 4 hrs you can use the screen or you can store the screen in a dark box or garbage bag to be used in the next couple of wks. If you have everything ready, you have enough time to place your image and glass on the screen in visible light. You can expose your screen with a normal light source, including sunshine. The book has a chart for exposure times.Heat setting can be done with parchment paper and a normal clothing iron.Last, Speedball screens are made so you can easily replace your screen. You will only require one or 2 frames and from there just buy screen. This way if you have a design that you know you want to do again you don't have to clean the screen or buy a new frame to do other things, you can simply replace the screen in the frame and keep your other one for later.

I haven't done a silk screen print since Jr. high and was inspired to try it on some t-shirts for an event. This kit comes with all the essentials needed to get started using 3 different methods of printing. I haven't tried the photo emulsion yet but the drawing fluid and screen filler method is surprisingly easy to make custom designs. This set comes with a very good set of instructions with photos to make them easier to understand. I highly recommend this set!

I purchased this kit because I really wanted to get into screen printing and this was the cheapest way to start. For the price it was a good deal in my opinion. When it arrived 2 days later which seemed incredibly fast for free shipping I was very happy. When I open the box everything seemed to be intact, except the screen filler. Part of it had opened up and went on the screen and several pages of the instruction booklet. It only got a portion of the screen so it wasn't too bad. It does not come with transparency but you could get those printed at Kinko's for really cheap. When using the inks you must work pretty quickly because unless you don't it will dry up and clog up your screen, which I found out that dish washing soap works pretty well in getting that out. The squeegee was ok I can work with it. And if anyone is wondering the sensitizer is a paste, but its not going anywhere till you add the water and Shake Vigorously! I found that using a straightened out paper clip helps to get it out from the bottom.Overall I think it was a good deal for the price and I'm happy with the outcome of the products that I produced with it: [...]But they should but more time into making sure their product is packaged correctly.