Printmaking+Beer Labels

Any printmaking homebrewers out there?

I'm thinking about using screen printing or lithography to do my labels. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this approach.

 

That would be hella-cool. One item worth looking into, though, would be to make sure the ink doesn't run once the bottle starts sweating. So, just make sure to use waterproof ink.

 

The vast majority of printing inks are not water soluble. I have some experience with print making, but none with bottles or screen printing. I'd be interested to see how it goes!

 

I'm a graphic communications major (read printing) at Clemson University. So far, I did a lable on a crappy duplicator and a set of lables in my specialty flexo class (die cut and all!). I haven't done screen, but as long as you are using pressure sensitive I dont see why it would be a problem.

I did some cool etchings on glass also by screen printing a reverse image on the glass. I then applied the acid etch to the exposed areas, waited 5 min, then washed the ink and etch off. Turned out great.

 

Oh wow, that sounds awesome. I have a lot of experience with acid etching with metal, so I'd like to try that with glass sometime.

 

Man...I can't find it, but someone did some great single color mini screen prints on wired tags that he put on the bottle necks....they couldn't have been any nicer.

 

You mean these?

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=65562
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=66896

 

We have one of these bad boys at work, I wonder if I can convince my boss to let me try a couple bottles on it. We never use the damn thing anyways, we discontinued the product we used to print on it.

 

Yup! Those.

I cant' imagine anything cooler....especially for the BarleyWine.

 

Ooh yeah those are nice. I'm actually a printmaking major, so the bottle design aspect of brewing really appeals to me. That rotating printing press is quite nice too. I might try to rig up something like that...

 

I'm an apprentice screen printer, haven't printed any of my own labels though.

Too much stuffing around with screens and stuff at home for me, although there's no reason why it can't be done.

 

We have a similar machine in our lab that we printed onto our glasses. Be careful though, some idiots set the pressure too high on the flood bar and broke a few glasses...