Easiest, and cheapest way to screenprint!

[crow]

Need
acrylic paint*

(depends on price but any crafting store carries it)
Modge Podge

(any art store. I use hard finish. about 5-8$)
Silk or Nylon

(jo-anns fabrics - they always have coupons and sales)
Cross-Stitch Frames

(can find at jo-anns. supercheap in many sizes)
paintbrushes (got my entire pack for 6$ at an art store- 15 brushes of various sizes)
Sponge or sponge-like substance (you can get tons of them cheap at any art store)
Fabric to print on, of course (0$)

simple. tighten the screen in the wood frame. paint in glue what you want. for the picture, paint the inverse of what you wish to print. lay on fabric, sponge a small amount of paint on the screen-over your fabric.

They don't come out as well as a professional print but, it works.
Say anything you want. print any picture you want. It's cheap and awesome.
If you're good at painting- print 50 of anything and sell them on the street for 50 cents-1$ a piece. That's the going rate, really. But you know something's only worth what one is willing to pay. I make free patches for friends all the time.

**If you have a large enough frame, you can jack a squeegee from a gas station and run a thin line of paint over the print then the squeegee actually distributes more evenly. 'Course you can cut the squeegee down.

* you can use spraypaint, acrylic, pretty much whatever you want
** I do not encourage illegal acts. If you choose to steal, that's on you. you can usually just ask the supervisor how much a squeegee costs and buy it off them. they'll look at ya weird but, be glad to make a buck.

Hope this helps. if ya'll want to make me some patches, that'd be great. ;]

 

[614 crust]

I buy used screens from screen printing shops for a few bucks and reclaim them, that or just dumpster them. not all shops will throw them away or sell them though so you'll have to do a little work to find one that does. It's well worth the effort though when you do. I also got a good hustle for getting the real ink for free too. I'm not gonna share that though cause I don't wanna blow that shit up, but if you're smart it's not too hard to figure out. You can also dumpster the mostly empty ink bottles from shops too. They usually have a little left in them, at least enough to do a small run of patches. You can the the lights for exposing the photo emulsion from walmart for like $4.00. A clear 300 watt bulb works fine. For the photo emulsion kit you might have to spend a little money though. That or you could steal it from hobby lobby if you do that kinda shit. If not it costs about $30.00 Hobby Lobby is a good place to get screen printing stuff. They usually sell everything you need there. There screens are kind of expensive though, but i told you how to get those for free or really cheap already though.

Right now I got a full set up with 3 screens. several different colors of ink, photo emulsion, light, squeege, everything and only got about $40.00 to maybe $50.00 at the most in all of it. You can see some shirts and patches I've done in some of my albums (heres one of them) 614 crust's Album: screen printed shirts and patches and in a few threads on here as well.

If you have any questions about shit you need or how to set up or anything feel free to PM me and I'll get back to you and help as much as possible soon as i get the chance. Hope this helps you all out.

Peace
Angel

 

[crow]

I agree that finding good materials is definitely worth it. My method is cheap and not effective for detail.
You do great work, crust.

There are tutorials on youtube on how to make your own screen with a staple gun and silk. Very easy.