Well hello! Yes, I have been MIA forever. I know, I know. I always think about blogging and then bam! Life hits me in the face again. BUT...I am here to talk about something new I have been working on. Sublimation printing. It differs from iron on vinyl in the way that with sublimation, your ink is actually transferred into the item. There are always caveats of course.
I will say this is very much a trial by fire kind of thing. Expect mistakes. Expect learning curves. I am just now getting to the point where I am getting more comfortable with making certain items and not finding a million faults with it.
I actually started with attempting tumblers but who knows what I was thinking because they are HARD to get down. The ghosting is a huge problem for many people. I then attempted a magnet which was fairly easy, even if a little off center. Oh and don't mind the towel that we have that has the outline of the photo now inked into it. A learning curve!
Shirts are by far what I have been trying the most. Learning what materials work best, how to not get the design on the back of the shirt also, how to keep your design in place. The biggest caveat to shirts is the higher the polyester count, the brighter the image. Now, polyester shirts are not always easy to find but thankfully there are a lot of shops popping up that sell sublimation blanks. The next is that you cannot print white. There is not white ink in the majority of sublimation printers (or maybe not in any, I am not sure).
I will explain more in future blogs but I wanted to provide some examples of different materials.
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| This shirt is 100% polyester. There is no white so your image will take on the color of the shirt. |
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| This is a faux bleached shirt that is 95% polyester and the colors are popping! |
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| This shirt is 100% polyester |
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This one is 60% polyester/ 40% cotton but no bleach.  |
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| Another 95% polyester |