DIY Mesh Glue for Screen Printing

Silk-screen printing is no longer an art form reserved for professional artists and large-scale printing operations with sophisticated production techniques. With a few basic supplies, such as plain white glue, and at a fraction of the cost, you can create your own design and produce silk screen images on fabric in an afternoon.

Silk screening, also called screen printing, is among the oldest printing methods, first appearing in China around 960 AD. Silk screen printing is a popular small business due to relatively small start-up costs and ease of learning the basic skills.

A screen is made of a piece of porous, finely woven fabric called mesh stretched over a frame of aluminum or wood. Originally human hair then silk was woven into screen mesh, currently most mesh is made of man made materials such as steel, nylon, and polyester. Areas of the screen are blocked off with a non-permeable material to form a stencil, which is a negative of the image to be printed; that is, the open spaces are where the ink will appear.