Rookie Seeks Professional Opinion on Mixed Ink

[three bean screen]

I was hoping to get anyones opinion on what went wrong here. I had a client who asked me to print a small run of posters for them. I'm pretty new to screen printing in general and I am definitely not set up for posters but I figured if I take it slow, I could pull it off. Unfortunately the client was not completely satisfied with their posters and would like me to do a small run of reprints for their personal collection. There are some small streaks of color in what should be one flat pantone color running through some of the heavily saturated areas of the print. Can anyone tell me what these streaks are. My gut says that I had one too many PBR's while printing that night but it also says that maybe I didn't mix the ink well enough when trying to achieve my pantone colors. I am using Matsui waterbased inks. This was my first time trying to mix inks to achieve a pantone color. I was mixing the ink by hand with a spatula in a container.

Can anyone comment on what might have gone wrong? I can send you pics if you would like to see what happened or feel free to ask for more info if you would like. Thanks for your time. Much appreciated.

[aubrey]

post pictures.

[Andymac]

it couldn't be the beer, 'cause I don't think that's real beer.


Probably didn't mix enough or could be chunks of partially dried stuff. A big problem with waterbased inks. Strain the ink if it is lumpy.

During the run, all the cruddy crap in your ink puddle will get squished out and stuck in your screen when you run low, or you miss a flood and run out of ink halfway across. then they appear on the next bunch of prints. stuck in the screen, they need to be washed with water. a pain. So don't run low. always be working your ink back in, and adding more.



But stirring it and straining lumpy bits first is the best.



and post pictures.

[caribou]

are the streaks a different color, or are they the same color, just a thicker ink deposit? if it's just thicker, maybe you've got a nick in your squeegee edge that's depositing extra ink.

[ZOMIC]

What kind of strainer(or the best way) would be appropriate to strain the chunks....In your opinions

[jayryan]

personally, when i've got some chunks in the ink. i add a little water to the jar, stir thoroughly, and then pour through a kitchen-grade strainer (the kind one might use for pasta. window-screen-sized mesh) into a second CLEAN container.

[jayryan]

a strainer like this one.

[ZOMIC]

Thankyou kindly

[squeegeethree]

Could be squeegee marks as well. When I strain I just take some old mesh and milk the ink through the mesh with the ink inside making a kind of bag. You can strain a gallon of ink this way in about 20 seconds.

[windflame]

Recently I've found that when I flood back but I didn't have enough ink the area that is left open, when filled with new ink is a slightly different color.