In the traditional
silk-screening approach, you start with a square wooden
frame about the size of a T-shirt. Over this frame you
tightly stretch a piece of sheer fabric (originally silk,
now polyester). This is the screen. Over this sheer fabric
you put a thin sheet of plastic into which you have cut
holes where you want ink to appear on the T-shirt. You can
either cut the holes with a scalpel (an arduous task), or
you can use a liquid plastic coating that's sensitive to
ultraviolet light and "cut" the holes with light.
Next, you place your T-shirt on a flat board and press the
screen onto the fabric. By coating the screen with thick
ink using a sponge or squeegee, you cause the ink to flow
through the screen onto the T-shirt. For multi-color
designs, you do this multiple times, starting with the
lightest color and moving up to the darkest.
