Setting Up a Printing Station

As Elizabeth sets up for quilt camp in the hope that Sue can make it to New Hampshire this summer, we thought it might be a good idea to show you how we create our printing station.  First, a sturdy counter top or table is in order.  You don’t want anything that wobbles or anything that makes your back hurt from hunching over it.  In our temporary summer studio (also known as the garage), we use two saw horses with a thick piece of plywood on top.

Our next layer is a piece of polyester craft felt which can be bought off a bolt at fabric stores.  We bought ours at JoAnn’s Fabrics and Crafts.  You can see that ours has been well used over many summers as sometimes dye or paint will bleed through a bit.  Make sure it is a piece of felt you want to dedicate to this purpose.

The last layer of the printing station is a topper which can be switched out if it gets too wet with paint because you don’t want to get paint from a previous print on the back of your new one.  A simple piece of muslin will work, but we use a heavier piece of canvas cloth.  You could put a piece of muslin over the top of the canvas as well.  What you are aiming for in making this layered surface is something firm enough to push against but with a bit of give to it so that when you press the squeegee over the screen you will get an even perfect print. You can see that our cover canvas cloth is well used; once it is really saturated with paint you definitely want to change cloths so that it will have some absorbency for any leftover paint that might go through the fabric which you are printing.

Now you are ready for some printing fun…….