What is transfer printing?
Transfer printing or sublimation printing transfers an image using heat and pressure onto a fabric or other materials via a substrate. This technique relies on the fact that dyes sublime when heated which is sometimes also known as sublimation printing.
Dry transfer
Dry transfer involves the use of crayons. Doodle your designs freely! Another way to approach this would be to find an interesting texture, place your paper or fabric over it, and shade over it!
Materials needed:
Crayola crayons
Baking paper
Paper
Objects or textures
Fabric (polyester) / wood
Heat press machine
Wet transfer
Using dry brushstrokes or find any textured surface and brush the fabric dye over the surface.
Materials needed:
Fabric dyes
Baking paper
Paper
Objects or textures
Fabric (polyester) / wood
Heat press machine
Direct Transfer Print
How to do it:
Heat the heat press to 200 degrees
Set the timer to 35 seconds
Lay a sheet of baking paper on the heat press machine
Lay the fabric (polyester), shiny side up
Lay your paper, ink side down
Lay another piece of baking paper above the fabric
Press it. Collect the print after 35 seconds.
Indirect Transfer Print
How to do it:
Heat the heat press to 200 degrees
Set the timer to 35 seconds
Lay a sheet of baking paper on the heat press machine
Lay the fabric (polyester), shiny side up
Place your object of desire above the satin
Lay your paper, ink side down
Lay another piece of baking paper above the fabric
Press it. Collect the print after 35 seconds.
Reflection
Reminds me of cyanotype, a photographic printing process where you place an object on a chemical coated paper and leave it out in sunlight to achieve a negative print. I did not really enjoy this method perhaps due to the selection of colours. I have a penchant for muted and pastel colours and such bright and vibrant dyes did not really appeal to me. However, it was really interesting to work with threads and the indirect transfer as the result is always a surprise and the way the thread blocks out the dye and gets captured on the fabric creates an interesting lattice.