Put on green gloves and place your screen in the emulsion remover tank for around 10 minutes. You may need to flip your screen after 5 minutes to make sure the entire mesh has been submerged in the emulsion remover. The tank can fit 3 screens comfortably.

Put on an A2 mask, a visor with ear protectors, a yellow raincoat and green gloves before entering the screen reclamation room. Take your screen and place it in the trough with the frame side against the backlit area.

Make sure the power hose switch is on (it's on the wall).

Use the power hose to remove the emulsion. It should come away easily but for stubborn areas you can get close to the mesh with the nozzle of the hose – don't be afraid to get too close.

When the emulsion is all removed there may be a ghost image on the mesh. This is where ink has stained the mesh from a previous image and won’t affect your image. Hold it to the light and see if you can see through the stain. If so, it’s completely fine.

If you aren’t sure, show it to a technician for guidance.

The next step is the to make sure your mesh is very clean by using the degreasing agent and a white brush. You will find these in a tray beneath the wash-out sink.

Put on green gloves and place your screen in the wash-out sink.

Spray degreaser on the flat mesh side of your screen and scrub with the white brush provided. Scrub on both sides of your screen.

Spray off the degreaser with the hose and dry your screen either outside (screen side against the wall so water drains out of your screen and doesn’t collect in the frame), in the drying cabinet, or in front of the fans (if these aren’t already on, the switch is on the wall opposite the fans). Store it in the screen storage if you aren’t using it immediately. Please don’t leave campus without taking your screen inside.

Put on a pair of disposable gloves and either place your screen on the coating benches or in the wall-mounted coating rack.

Choose the correct length of coating trough (small for A3 screens, medium for A2 screens and large for A1 screens) and get 2 coating caps for your trough. Make sure that these are all completely dry before you use them. Cloths are provided below the benches.

Fill your coating trough with emulsion to about halfway. If there are any large bubbles, burst them with the corner of a hard white spatula. You can also tap your trough to bring any bubbles to the surface and burst them.

Place the trough at the bottom of your mesh (not frame) and tip until the emulsion is just touching the mesh.

Using a light but firm pressure, move the trough up the screen in one fluid motion.

Stop a couple of centimetres from the top, tip the trough away from the screen so the emulsion is no longer touching the screen, and move the trough up and away. This enables you to coat the whole area without having a thick area of emulsion at the top.

You’re looking for a thin, even coating. This is the hardest part to master, so if you aren’t sure, or aren’t confident please ask a technician for help. We would much rather help you to coat your screen than to clean up a big emulsion mess!

Scrape away any thicker areas along the sides of the coating and put them back into the emulsion tub.

Place your screen in the drying cabinet for about 15-20 minutes, or until it’s completely dry. The emulsion is light-sensitive so leave it in the drying cabinet until you expose it. As there is limited space in the drying cabinet, please don’t coat your screen too far in advance of when it will be exposed.

Remove one end of the trough, and using a soft spatula, scrape all the unused emulsion back into the tub. Place the lid back on.

Clean everything that you use in the large cleaning sink, dry, and replace.

While your screen is drying you can work on your positives.

The exposure unit uses LED UV light which cures the photosensitive emulsion. Where your black opaque image on film (positive) blocks the light from reaching the emulsion, it will wash out of the mesh after exposure and create your stencil to print through.

To EXPOSE your screen

1. Make sure the glass of the exposure unit is clean. Glass cleaner and microfibre cloths are provided on the wall to the right of the units if you need to clean any marks off the glass.
2. Place your positive face up on the glass. If your image contains text, it should read the correct way. Unlike most other printmaking techniques, processes in screen printing are done the right way round.
3. When the emulsion on your screen is completely dry, take it out of the drying cabinet and place it, mesh down, onto the glass of the exposure unit. Make sure that your positive/s sit as central to your screen as possible to give the best printing margin around your image. Also make sure that your screen is as central as possible on the exposure unit, as this is where the light is the strongest. There are tape markers on the glass to show the edges of the area. Don’t place your screen outside these markers, or the lid may not close properly, and the vacuum won’t operate as well.
4. Place the cord inside your screen. This helps the vacuum to remove more air from the unit and keep your positive as close to the mesh as possible, to create a crisp image.
5. Close the lid gently and use the clamps to seal it shut.
6. Make sure that the control panel displays the correct vacuum and exposure time for your screen. In general, this will be 10 seconds for the vacuum and 20 for the exposure. If these times aren’t set already, ask a technician for help.
7. Pressing Run will start the vacuum and exposure.
8. It will stop automatically. Open the lid gently and remove your screen and positive.
9. Place your screen into the water tank for about 10 seconds to start the process of soaking off the emulsion that hasn’t been cured by the light (your image).
10. Clean off the rest of the emulsion with the hose in the sink. Your image should emerge easily. There are sponges available to try to remove stubborn bits of emulsion, or ask a technician if you aren’t sure.
11. Take your screen and dry it either outside, in the drying cabinet or with the fans. Store it in the screen storage if you aren’t using it immediately. Please don’t leave campus without taking your screen inside.