PRINTING PLAYDAYS II

HEAT TRANSFER PRINTING

For our next Phoenix printing play session Patti offered to bring in her heat press so we could experiment with transfer printing using special paints and crayons which are sold for this purpose, synthetic fabric (preferably 100% polyester) and some household irons.

Firstly, we painted our papers using the heat transfer paint and crayons to create designs we would transfer onto fabric, remembering that the image would be printed in reverse. Other sheets of paper were filled with one colour, as these would be used to cut out shapes to create collages. It is best to use thin non-absorbent paper such as greaseproof paper or printer paper.

Once the papers were dry the design was transferred onto the fabric using the application of heat. By placing the design face down onto the fabric and either ironing the paper until the image was transferred, or by placing it into a heat press for 20 seconds at 180 degrees centigrade.

We found that we achieved more vibrant colours if we used a 100% polyester fabric, and colours were more muted if we used a polyester mix fabric.

We ended with some great results as you can see from the following images.