Digital to Textile

[Faith]

I thought it would be good to have a different discussion thread for showing/talking about how we are transforming our digital images into textile creations.


I'll start off with this post.
Design to Textile

This was inspired by the lace I'm using. I used gimp to plan it out. Depending on how it turns out when I'm completely finished, I may do it again because, of all the things I could mess up, I messed up the inspiration/lace! Just little things, but they might bother me. I'll post a picture here once it's done.

[Ruth Palsson]

Looking forward to progress!

[Diane]

I had an aha moment the other day. I have been using photographs of my deconstructed screen printing to print on fabric so I could do sampling of the next step in cutting and manipulating without losing the original fabric. It worked out great and I got a piece juried into a show this fall. It's good to work out the construction details ahead of time.

Now I realize I don't even have to get out the dyes (unless I want to do a large piece) I can just design the fabric on GIMP, print it with my Epson using Durabrite ink and then do my cutting and manipulating. Sampling just got even easier.

[Kathy H. Shaker]

Faith--

I'll be interested to see how you and other people like BubbleJet Set. I haven't used it in years because I wasn't pleased with the print quality or stability of the print. It has been years since I used it, though, and have upgraded my printers since then.

After seeing one of Sharon B's examples of stitching on printed Aida cloth, I tried my own experiment. I taped treated Aida cloth to a piece of paper to avoid ink going through the holes and gumming up the printer. I treated the first sample with Golden Digital Ground -- the print was almost as good as on paper, but hand stitching through the very stiff fabric was not pleasant. I don't know if it is possible to mix GAC 900 fabric medium in to the digital ground, but that might help. I tried again with PYMII (Preserve Your Memories II) spray. The company said to use my Canon inkjet (dye ink) and not my Epson (pigment ink), and the print quality is much poorer but the hand of the fabric is better. I haven't tried inkAID but am going to order a sample pack to give it a try.

This is a digital print on Aida with a small bit of stitching: Time Flies

[Faith]

Thanks for listing the other products you use. Bubblejet Set was the only one I had heard about and my local quilt store carries it. (I don't know if they were out because it goes fast or because it's rarely used.)

I like your Time Flies (not that I need the reminder). Is this the stiff one? Would the stiffness wash out?

Kathy H. Shaker said:

Faith--

I'll be interested to see how you and other people like BubbleJet Set. I haven't used it in years because I wasn't pleased with the print quality or stability of the print. It has been years since I used it, though, and have upgraded my printers since then.

After seeing one of Sharon B's examples of stitching on printed Aida cloth, I tried my own experiment. I taped treated Aida cloth to a piece of paper to avoid ink going through the holes and gumming up the printer. I treated the first sample with Golden Digital Ground -- the print was almost as good as on paper, but hand stitching through the very stiff fabric was not pleasant. I don't know if it is possible to mix GAC 900 fabric medium in to the digital ground, but that might help. I tried again with PYMII (Preserve Your Memories II) spray. The company said to use my Canon inkjet (dye ink) and not my Epson (pigment ink), and the print quality is much poorer but the hand of the fabric is better. I haven't tried inkAID but am going to order a sample pack to give it a try.

[Kathy H. Shaker]

No, the stiff one was just too difficult to stitch on -- "scoop" stitches weren't possible at all, and the holes were clogged enough that stabbing through them was more work than I wanted to deal with.

When I put the two prints side by side, there is a lot more detail on the stiff/Epson print. Some of it is the printer -- I just don't get the same crispness with my Canon that I do with the Epson, even when I compare prints on paper. Some of it was due to the pre-coat, though -- the Golden digital grounds just make a better print. I have an email out to a Golden artist to see if fabric medium (GAC 900) is compatible with the digital grounds.

Faith said:

Thanks for listing the other products you use. Bubblejet Set was the only one I had heard about and my local quilt store carries it. (I don't know if they were out because it goes fast or because it's rarely used.)

I like your Time Flies (not that I need the reminder). Is this the stiff one? Would the stiffness wash out?

[Diane]

I also upgraded my printer to an Epson Durabrite with pigment ink. I tried the BJS when it first came out. Still have a bottle around - I think it is formaldehyde. Don't know what to do with it now. I guess I should take it to a recycling center to deal with it. I found it useless way back then. Did some experiments with it again later when the subject came up again in a forum and declared it a loser for my purposes.

http://yarngoddess.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/the-samples/
http://yarngoddess.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/complete-washout/

Jeech, I did that in 2008. Time flies.
Diane

Kathy H. Shaker said:

Faith--

I'll be interested to see how you and other people like BubbleJet Set. I haven't used it in years because I wasn't pleased with the print quality or stability of the print. It has been years since I used it, though, and have upgraded my printers since then.

[Kathy H. Shaker]

It was frustrating to watch the ink come off the prints in bright little plumes. I tried it with pfd fabric, pre-washed (Synthrapol) fabric, BubbleJet Rinse, etc., and just didn't like the results. It could have been my old HP printer and not BBJS, but I never retried it when I got new printers because I like the results with EQ Printables so much.

Diane said:

I also upgraded my printer to an Epson Durabrite with pigment ink. I tried the BJS when it first came out. Still have a bottle around - I think it is formaldehyde. Don't know what to do with it now. I guess I should take it to a recycling center to deal with it. I found it useless way back then. Did some experiments with it again later when the subject came up again in a forum and declared it a loser for my purposes.
http://yarngoddess.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/the-samples/ http://yarngoddess.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/complete-washout/

Jeech, I did that in 2008. Time flies.
Diane

[Kathy H. Shaker]

Hi, All--

I just spoke with a very nice tech support guy at Golden about using the digital grounds on fabric. I asked about mixing GAC 900 with the digital grounds, since GAC 900 is supposed to maintain the hand of the fabric when ironed. He said they hadn't tested the grounds to see how they performed after ironing, and suggested instead diluting the ground with water up to 30%. If two coats (one applied horizontally, second applied vertically) are too stiff, try one. The clear ground might also be a little less stiff than the matte white.

If you're interested in some technical articles, I found these on the Golden website:

article discussing how the grounds work
article discussing mixing with other media

Kathy

[Shirley]

wow Faith, I just love your picture.

[Faith]

Guess I'm not the only one who hasn't made it back here. I am still doing digital to textile, though. Here's my last post about it: http://airynothing.net/Blogs/anblog/2012/11/12/another-project.   [I haven't done anything since then because of Thanksgiving and a cold and birthdays and now Christmas shopping/sewing to be done. (I'm not an organized person and it's easy to tell this time of year.)]

I looked in Photos for "Digital design" but nothing came up. What are you doing digital to textile?