Materials: What You Need To Start
In order to start screen printing, we'll need a couple of things. The easiest way to get these much needed supplies would be to buy an introductory screen printing kit. They are available in different price ranges and though it's not usually top notch quality stuff, the kits are intended to give you an idea of all the things you'll need to start your adventures in screen printing.
Note: This list is a work in process and will most likely get longer as time goes by.
What you’ll need is:
The Screen
Of course. The screen will be the medium through which the ink will go through and transfer onto your shirt. You can buy one already meshed and ready to go or make one yourself using polyester mesh.
A Squeegee
What you’ll be using to actually pass the ink through the screen and onto the shirt.
Some Textile Paint
Since we will be specifically dealing with t-shirts, textile paint is the way to go. If you plan on screen printing posters, other paints are perfectly fine to use too.
You’ll need to print out the image that will go on shirt onto transparency paper using black ink. Depending on your printer, you may need either laser or inkjet transparencies.
A Heat and Temperature Gun
For the textile paint to fully dry and stay on your shirt without washing off, you’ll need to cure it. Because a flash unit, conveyor dryer, or heat press cost a lot of money, the next best thing is to use a heat gun (available at a local hardware store for about $20) to cure a t-shirt because it can reach high temperatures.
The temperature gun is optional really, but useful because you’ll use it monitor the heat, making sure the temperature reaches at least 320 degrees Fahrenheit—that’s the temperature you’ll need to reach in order for the paint to fully adhere to the fabric. Any temperature lower than 320 will only cause the ink to come off in the wash and a temperature higher than that will mess up the ink and ruin the shirt.
If you really want to be cheap when it comes to screen printing, I suppose you could stick your freshly printed shirt in your kitchen oven and cure it that way…but that may be a bad idea for the following reasons:
1. The textile paint may release toxic fumes, rendering your oven unusable for food making.
(hmm…toxic flavored cookies…)
2. There's a possibility you might set your home on fire.
(that’s never good)
And finally,
3. Too much heat will burn and ruin the very same shirt you worked so hard to print.
A Coating Trough and Some Photo Emulsion
The nice thing about screen printing is that there are many ways to do it. Taping a stencil to your screen and passing a squeegee over it is one way. But, while stenciling is good for simple designs, it becomes time consuming and tedious when doing designs that have a lot of detail, so the next best thing to use is photo emulsion.
Photo emulsion is a photosensitive liquid substance that you apply to the screen using a coating trough (a squeegee will work just as well). When exposed to UV light, it hardens. There are different types of emulsion out there and are usually available at art supply stores or online, the price varies.
An Exposure Lamp/Unit
In order to print an image onto a shirt, you need to expose a screen that has been layered with photo emulsion and exposed to UV light. The sun is a perfect source, but it’s not constant. You don’t want to over expose your screen because it will damage it, but you don’t want to under expose it either because all of the emulsion will wash out.
Though you could run out and buy the latest in 
exposure unit technology, it is pretty pricey and since we’re just starting out, it may not be a good idea to invest such a large amount of money yet. So, a regular 500 watt halogen lamp will do (Like the one in the picture). You can get these at your local Lowes or Home Depot for around ten to fifteen dollars.
If you don’t mind waiting 30 to 60 minutes to expose your screen, you can use a regular light bulb as well.
...
Other supplies will probably be added to the list in the future, but for now these should be enough.
Intro to Screen Printing
Well I’m here to say that…I don’t either. Yes, that’s right. I am by no means an expert on the subject and therefore not technically qualified to attempt a screen printing tutorial but I’m gonna give it a shot anyway.
This is only one of the reasons I started this blog. Many in depth tutorials are aimed at people who want to screen print as a living, tending use pricey materials and equipment. While these tutorials are a great resource to use and offer a lot of advice from the pros, they are not very practical to the hobbyist or occasional printer. This blog will aim to make screen printing as painless on the wallet as possible. Another reason for creating this tutorial is that I may possibly fail a certain class if I don’t do this blog thing, but that’s another story…
That's great and all, but what is screen printing?
Screen printing is an art technique where an image is transferred to paper or an article of clothing via a woven mesh that supports an ink-blocking stencil. As a roller or squeegee is moved across the screen, it forces ink past the woven mesh onto whatever surface is printed on, thus creating a nice t-shirt or poster. Oh, and just so you know, other names for screen printing include silkscreen printing and serigraphy.
Coming from a new screen printer to other new screen printers, this blog will contain tips and how-to’s that I've come across and tried out myself as I start exploring the art of screen printing. And so with that, I look forward to posting more in the near future. See you then.