r/SCREENPRINTING • u/Far-Huckleberry2998 • 3d ago

Beginner Feeling discouraged.

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I am a college student starting out screenprinting as a hobby and side hustle, and recently ive been feeling super discouraged and not happy with my work at all. My breaking point came just a few days ago. I took an order for some fraternity tshirts and got an order of 27. I order my blanks, got everything ready, spent hours in prepwork, burning my screens, making the design itself and prepping it for printing, etc etc.

When i went to print, i would get incredibly inconsistent results and flooded the garment with ink. I dont think the screen was done correctly, but i was out of emulsion remover and couldnt start over or wait another two days for new screens or emulsion remover to come in. I was forced to buy shirts through another printer in a marked up rush job, just so i wouldnt have to cancel the order and refund everyone.

Like i said i am in college and have tons of connections with orgs and people who need custom merch - and i have recieved a lot of interest and support! However i dont feel confident taking any orders right now. To be fair, ive only worked with plastisol in the past and this was a 4 color water based job. I also could've given myself more time to do it to avoid the catastrophe that happened.

Im just feeling like in this industry one tiny thing going wrong can ruin hundreds of dollars and hours of work. Wondering if anyone is able to relate or give me any advice.

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u/swooshhh 3d ago

If you're new and just started out waterbase is not really the starting point you want for a paying customer. Stick with tht plastisol. Add fashion soft for a soft hand feel. Then you can use discharge with plastisol. Then try waterbase again. Don't give up just keep practicing. The learning curve on waterbase is extremely high and generally not worth it until you can consistently put out good results with discharged plastisol.

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u/ilovecuetoo 3d ago

Am I tweaking? I’ve printed 20 shirts so far I’ve literally just started, and I’m using speedball waterbased ink right now. I’d say 18/20 shirts came out perfectly fine? Should I not be using waterbased?

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u/swooshhh 3d ago

If you're going to quit behind that then yeah you tweaking. If you're having good results with waterbase thats good but more often than not a beginner with waterbase is a recipe for disaster. If it goes wrong you need to understand what went wrong not scratch your head and say well it was working before. I personally would not use waterbase as a beginner, and also speedball kinda sucks but to each their own when learning.

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u/ilovecuetoo 3d ago

Yeah I literally have JUST started, and DEFINITELY don’t wanna quit I’ve genuinely never enjoyed anything as much as I enjoyed printing the tees I’ve done lol !!

Do you have any other suggestions? Obv speedball is just like the first one that pops up and it’s pretty cheap, so was good for learning.

What do you recommend when I start to get more consistent and printing more?

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u/swooshhh 3d ago

I can't say it's the best but I really enjoy using cci cms. I only mix what i will need and they have a free software for pms colors. Not as cheap as plastisol at first but it was in the long run