Armed with a Black & Decker paint stripper gun, Milosj de Groot of Mad Specials has managed to create a mind-blowingly detailed three-dimensional screen print. He explains how he made the magic happen
Earlier this year, Milosj de Groot, the Dutch screen printer known for his incredible high-build prints, was asked by Wim D’haese, the owner of Samdam Group and SPrint Textile Decorations in Romania, to do some live printing at his Inspiratiedagen (aka Inspiration Days) event.
Wim thought it would be good to show his customers how shirts are printed, explains Milosj, adding: “For the design, the instructions were simple: ‘I want a fish’. And so it was done. A fish.”
The three-dimensional fish scales look almost life-like
“The artwork was done by me and the seps were done by JJ McCampbell from the States.
“It was six colours. But really seven. First down was black, mesh 77 European; flash; white puff, mesh 43 European 150mu high-build; flash; grey, mesh 77 European; light orange, mesh 90 European; black again – since I only had six colours available, I needed to print it again to bring back the halftones in the black; dark orange, mesh 90 European; flash; clear gel, mesh 27 300mu high-build European, with some glow-in-the-dark blue and a hint of pearl gel just to make it that little extra nice.
“The print was dried using a Black & Decker paint stripper gun. We had to do it this way because there were no high voltage sockets available.
“It was a first for me, printing outside. Luckily, the weather was not too bad!”
Milosj printed the design outdoors – a first for him!
For more details on how Milosj created this print, plus the equipment and techniques used, visit our July 2025 issue here
