Yudu and Me

I have been organizing bike rides for our club for a couple of years now. Ordering water bottles, socks, jerseys and T-shirts. One group nearby makes their own t-shirts and I kind of like them. So I have been thinking about silk screening. Maybe the T-shirts are an excuse to play with another medium.



I started with a photograph that I took on last years ride. I removed the background and then turned them black as a silhouette, 3 bikes riding along the road, cactus and mountains. It was a nice spring day and the second day of our ride. Muscles are feeling yesterdays ride.



I added some text, the club logo and then it was time for the screen burning process.

The Yudu holds 2 screens inside where the fan is, so I figured I would set up 2 screens. (Not a great idea, I think it slowed the dry time way down and I had a light sensitive screen to protect).



Patience.. I considered going for a bike ride today, really wanted to but I have these T-shirts to finish! I think in retrospect that going for a bike ride would have given everything a chance to dry, with me checking it constantly. Which is what I did, check the film constantly!



One emulsion ad a bad spot straight out of the package, thinking light sensitive and hurrying I had my image too high and part of it was in the damaged edge of the emulsion.

Rather than give up the “I rode the AzBikeClub.com “ I burned a second screen.



This one is better, and I will use it for the 12 shirts. I find I could screen 4 shirts and then I needed to wash the screen and squeegee dry everything and go for 4 more shirts. I only have one platen to hold the T-shirts and I think I will get 3 more. Changing the shirt on the platen takes a bit of time, and the print is still wet so I have to be careful. I think if I had 4 shirts ready to go I might be able to do 6 or 8 between washing the screen. The ink really thickens up quickly.



I need to make the letters bolder or get a font with thicker letters. All lines should be at least 2 points thick, maybe 3.



Overall I am happy with the setup and it has lots of possibilities!



So the shirts are done, the lunch for tomorrows picnic is made. Supplies for the weekend have been purchased. We will have a fun bike ride and meet some new friends who also enjoy a nice desert ride.