Monday, 29 December 2025

CULMINATION -- Drawing, AI, Printmaking


CULMINATION
Drawing, AI, Printmaking

I combined -- DRAWING, AI ART, and PRINTMAKING -- with a SILK SCREEN print at the end of the year (December 29th):

My DRAWING (left)
altered by AI (right)

5 x 5 inch figure burned TWICE
 into silk screen with a laser cutter


The quick prints on drawing paper
with red speedball fabric ink


7 x 12 inch "no glue self-tension frame" 
stretched with a METAL screen

I had also laser engraved AI figures into linoleum to make relief prints:

AI Laser Engraved -- Linocut Prints


PREVIOUS Silk Screen Blog Posts:


PROCESS

We LASER CUT an image into a silk screen frame. The key is using a METAL SCREEN -- since the C02 laser will not cut metal:

Laser cutting one of my AI drawings
into METAL Silk Screen mesh

Prints, Silk Screen Frame, Yellow Spreader

MATERIALS:

We coated the metal silk screen with photo emulsion:

ecotex TEX BLUE photo emulsion

The SCREEN ready for a photo emulsion coating

The 7.5 x 10 inch coated screen

We left the coated screen out in the sun to harden the emulsion on the whole screen.  Note that we are not using the photo emulsion conventionally, as we are NOT exposing a Transparency on it:

The photo emulsion hardening on the screen
 in the sun

Moving onto the Laser Cutter, I imported my FAKE Drawing made by AI, into LightBurn software, and designated the settings:
  • 80 SPEED
  • 30 POWER
November 19, 2025
My FAKE drawing ready to laser cut
in LIGHTBURN Software

30 POWER
80 SPEED

Focusing inside the frame,
after putting the frame on the honeycomb support

The Final Laser Cut

It took just over 17 minutes to cut the 5x5 inch FAKE KRRRL Drawing:

It took 17.37 minutes
to cut the 5x5 inch image

I actually laser cut the image twice, taking over a half hour, because I thought that the thin lines did not cut.  However I was wrong, I am sure that they laser cut through the first time:

I actually laser cut this image
with two passes --
when I only needed one

  • In fact, I suspect that I could have doubled the speed to 60, and laser cut the image in less than ten minutes

The bad print proof --
I should have taken more care to pull a better print

 The whole laser cutting process worked really well.  I just needed to take more care in printing, in order to get a better image.

  • I think that I would get better artistic results were I to laser cut the same image, only Bigger, to preserve the Detail.
RE-COATING

UPDATE (January 9, 2026): I re-coated the screen with photo emulsion -- and laser cut into the screen again -- before exposing it to the sun.  Everything seemed to work well, even at a faster 100 Speed (and still 30 Power):
January 7, 2026
I laser cut this figure
into the re-coated metal silk screen



100 SPEED
30 Power
11.03 minutes

Five inches high


STRECHING the SCREEN

We used a 300 METAL MESH screen from AliExpress:

300 mesh METAL Screen



Adric stretched the screen, and shared photos online:

Unboxing the screen kit

The tools that came with it

The critical screen holder inserts


The frame is armed

Attaching the screen to the frame --
NO NAILS or GLUE NECESSARY!

Tensing the screen


Ready for Printing!

X-TOOL sells a system for printing laser cut images with the silk screen process for $400.  It looks like the screens are not reusable, and that you have to buy a new screen every time you want to laser cut/etch a new image.  They also call them "Polyester Fast Engrave Screens," which suggests they are not using metal mesh screens.


EPILOGUE

A small DIODE Laser Cutter might be even quicker if it works.  I need to try to cut the Metal Mesh with my LaserPecker2:


Laserpecker 2 Prints
The DIODE Laser cutter
would only laser cut small metal screens


UPDATE (January 7, 2026): We used the LaserPecker2 to laser cut into the emulsion on the metal mesh screen at Quelab. We cut a 50 x 30 cm image of my drawing in less than a minute and a half.  Even then, it still smelt bad.  The newly laser cut image is the abstract white figure below (next to the larger female figure we laser cut previously):

The small image on the right (white)
 cut all the way through with the LaserPecker2

The tablet controlled the LaserPecker2
123456

Power settings

The bright yellow dot
is the laser working

Also would it be simpler -- and safe? -- to laser cut into just regular SPEEDBALL SCREEN FILLER, and avoid using the fancy photo emulsion?  

 
Speedball Screen Filler

Apparently GUCAMOLE works for silk screening -- if you coat the metal screen with avocado paste and then laser cut into it:

Avocado and Laser to Make Screenprinting Screens?? 
Creality Falcon 2 Pro Laser Cutter Review

  • Adric suggested that we coat the metal screen with "Green Chile Skins"

diyeli figured out how to use PVC pipes as reusable silk screen frames:


PRINTMAKING SURGE
Using PVC tubes
as reusable silk screening frames

Perhaps the slickest way to make quick silk screen prints, even in public, was the old RISO GOCCO system, that Anna demonstrated in Taos.  However that product is no longer being made:

PRINTERS PLANET TAOS 2025 -- RISO DEMO
Anna Aragon demonstrating the RISO GOCOO


Also a quick-and-easy way to print t-shirts is to use a laser cutter to cut images into newsprint. Then just put the newsprint design between the silk screen and the t-shirt and pull ink over it.  The newsprint will stick to the silk screen, so that you can pull a few more times and make a few more t-shirts:

Show at the Mothership with Print Exchange
Laser cutting newsprint
to silk screen t-shirts

WHAT? The GOCCOPRO "prints" directly to a silk screen -- $7000?:


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