anika mari

A few weeks back I screen printed some t-shirts for my brother’s 24 hour bike relay race team with my handy gocco printer.  They are the Posse of Mustached Bandits. My brother came up with the logo, though I tweaked it a bit to make it a more solid and balanced mark.

It was my first time printing on fabric, and the technique was quite a bit different than printing on paper. I had to use a squeegee (with the paper process you can press your prints using the machine). It was very easy and went quickly, even if it was a bit messy.

I had a few little slip-ups here and there, but I got 4 decent shirts out of 6. The other two were sorta ok, with only one errant splotch on each.

There was a bit of unevenness in the solid black areas, but I think that could be helped if I get a better surface to mount the shirts on.

To see the detail and the unevenness more closely, view the image large.

I used some spare cardboard that was lying around to mount the shirts on before printing so the ink wouldn’t bleed through to the back of the shirt. Unfortunately the cardboard was very soft, and as I drew the squeegee over the screen, I could feel each bump as it ran over the ridges. If I had a flat hard board of some sort, the print might be more even, though I’ll have to test that theory.

Placement of the logo on the shirts is another thing I might want to consider more carefully next time. I pretty much just eyeballed each shirt, so the marks weren’t in the exact same place for each. I printed 2 large and 4 medium shirts, and when folded and stacked up, it’s evident that they are each unique.

All in all I’m satisfied with the results of my first try, and I can’t wait to try it again!