Lesson 02, 16 August 2018

Transfer printing can be sorted out of three kinds: dry transfer, wet transfer and digital transfer. The transfer of design print onto fabrics in particular is still practiced commercially today for its cheap storage cost (papers!) and fast production line.

Dry Transfer

Materials: Crayons, paper and polyester (or cotton) fabric

Design is drawn on the paper with crayons. To transfer print, press the paper onto fabric using a heated iron. Wait for about 7 seconds for the crayon to melt onto fabric. It can be done repeatedly.

 

Wet Transfer (Direct and indirect)

Materials: Transprint inks, paintbrushes, polyester fabric and pattern stencils

This transfer is done similar to the dry transfer but using transprint inks. Heat press machine (for polyester set at 200°C, 35s) is used here for a better transfer effect. The high temperature provides a moist condition that helps ink absorption from fabric.

The direct transfer refers to the direct application of ink on design stencil to the paper. In my experiment, I used leaf and furry strings as my stencils. The mix of yellow and blue gave a interesting depth of the pattern.

Indirect transfer is done otherwise, extracting the negative space of the stencil. Inks will be painted fully onto the paper first before placing stencil in between the paper and fabric.

 

Digital Transfer

Materials: Magic Touch transfer paper, wood or fabric

Design is printed with laser printer using the Touch Print heat transfer paper. The print paper has to be differentiated, depending on the choice of medium being a hard or soft surface.

This technique had to be done several times from varying the temperature and duration to get the best result. Heat press on wood has the best result with temperature set to 200°C for 30s.

 

Overall, I enjoyed the wet transfer using transprint inks most. The colour outcome was most vibrant and organic, characterised with brushstrokes pattern.

 

Sources:

http://textilelearner.blogspot.com/2012/03/transfer-printing-process.html

http://textilelearner.blogspot.com/2013/11/wet-transfer-printing-method-steps-of.html

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