Post #159168 by hewey on Sun, May 15, 2005 10:40 PM

I will post the instructions to help out those who wanna know how i did it. When I get the pics sorted I will edit the post and paste them in. Ask if you got questions.

Rodeo - difficulty is medium. Takes a few hours? Depends on the design. Did it in my backyard. Paint roller was $2.50, ink was $10 (I reckon I could do 10 of these shirts with how much I used on this one). Most people will have a knife, and if you use paper or cardboard for the stencil itself, it will cost you bugger all.

Kirby - seen the stuff you talk about. Good for photos, complex pictues etc. I'm not big on the quality myself, a bit rough and looks "homemade".

Aaron's Akua - This methods gives you top quality results with bugger all outlay (cost me $30 including shirt, and have plenty of ink left). If you get proper screen printers ink it will fade as much as any shirt you would buy in a store. This was only my 3rd attempt at a shirt, and only the second time I have used proper ink and a roller.

HERE WE GO:

I am gonna run you through the basics of printing your own custom shirts using a stencil. It is relatively quick, easy and inexpensive way of making some cool threads. What’s more, once you have made the initial stencil, it is damn easy to reproduce. Most of the labour is in designing and cutting out the stencil.

However, this approach has the drawback of not being able to have “islands” in the design. Say What? An island is a free floating part of the design that you don’t want ink on. For example, the middle of an “0” is an island as it fully disconnected from outside the letter. Therefore, it cannot be supported unless to put something across the body of the letter itself, to support it. Follow through the process and this will be a bit clearer.

Design your logo/design you want on your shirt. Sketch it out and get a feel for the design. I have gone for what will be a simple single colour logo. Notice how the lines of the design don’t meet up? This prevents the formation of islands. Be aware that the more design you have, and less bridges between it, the more unstable the stencil becomes. This may result in it moving when painting, or being damaged when moved.

I then copy the design onto an overhead sheet (or transparency) to cut the stencil from. These are available from your office supplies shop. Acetate from a art shop also works well apparently, but I have not used it. Paper and cardboard can be used, but these have their drawbacks. It doesn’t cut cleanly with a knife, and when the paint or ink dries, they tend to curl up at the corners of the design. Use these if you are just mucking around, and want to have a go with no real outlay of cash.

Cut out the stencil. I use a nice sharp scalpel. Just make sure your knife sits nicely in your hand and is sharp. I personally move the stencil around heaps to try and make it easier. Be careful of the already cut stencil catching on stuff. A good stencil will have consistent line thickness, generally be balanced, and have consistent corners (either all sharp or all rounded). Text can be one of the hardest things to do as it needs to be really consistent, and the letters such as q, e, o, p, a, d, g, and b all have islands in them, and it can be hard to make these look good. Also, try not to put the design too close to the edges as you need a bit of room to tape it down, and this will also make it more stable.

Once you have cut the stencil, test your stencil out. I just grab a piece of paper, and use a cheap spraycan. Get critical, as this your last chance to modify the stencil before you put ink to shirt. Unfortunately, it is difficult to remedy if you have cut too much. You can tape up holes, and then recut, but the tape pulls the stencil into tension and it then curls up.

Bring on the shirt! Use a nice thick shirt. Wear it and wash it a few times preferably to stretch it, make sure the colour doesn’t wash out etc. Tape the stencil down with masking tape, making sure it sits flat on the shirt. Put a large flat piece of cardboard in the shirt to give you a firm surface to work on.

Paint! The best stuff to use is proper screen printers ink, using a craft roller. Again, consult your arts/crafts stores. There is also a spray on shirt ink available, but I have not used this. Put some ink on your roller getting a consistent coverage. Like any good painting, start light and build the colour. Lightly roll the roller from the middle of the design out. This can be a pain at first, but you will get the feel of it quickly. Practice is the key, like anything. Keep going till you have full coverage of the design. To give the shirt an aged appearance, water down the ink (assuming it is acrylic). You don’t need much water, just a sprinkling. I learnt this by accident, as I found the ink too thick and watered it down. When it dried, it had a cool aged effect (unfortunately, this doesn’t show up in the photos).

Peel the stencil off and bask in your creative glory! Give the stencil plenty of time to dry. Most inks will require “setting”. Grab an iron and iron the inside of the shirt (the back of the stencil). This will ensure the colour will not run or fade. Hand wash the first time or too just in case the colour runs.

Wear. Enjoy.

If you want more info, go to http://www.stencilrevolution.com and poke around. I learnt all my stencil knowledge from there and experimentation. There are some great tutorials, that go into more depth on designing stencils, making shirts etc. There is some awesome stuff in the galleries, even tiki stuff! In the galleries go to search and put in “tiki”.

Hope to see your tiki shirts soon!

NOTE: Drinking rum may aid the design stage of the process. However, it may inhibit the printing of the shirt and is definitely not suggested for the cutting out of the design J