Over the last few years I have had a number of people ask me if I had towels or things like that with my artwork on them. I wasn’t even sure how I would go about getting my artwork on towels other than sending out the digitized art and having it printed elsewhere and then shipped back to me. I checked into this and it was expensive.
Then at Christmas time I was selling my art at a local bazaar and saw someone else had towels with artwork on them. We got talking about it, and I learned about sublimation. Now, I had seen sublimation papers at Michael’s when I was looking for t-shirt vinyl, and I had bought some pre-printed sublimation papers and tried it on a couple of t-shirts, but I didn’t like the results, mostly because I didn’t know anything about sublimation at the time, plus I didn’t want the pre-printed stuff, I wanted my artwork.
But after visiting with the other vendor, I started actually doing some research and learning more about it. I discovered it didn’t take a fancy, expensive printer, just a new one that I could add sublimation ink to rather than using the ink that came with the printer. Epson Ecotank printers work perfectly. But, at the time I really didn’t have time to pursue this, nor did I need a new project.
I had told my husband about the things I had discovered however, and for Christmas, guess what he purchase me. An Epson Ecotank printer. I was excited and a little bit irritated all at once. I had told him not to spend the money on that, but now that I had it, well there was no reason not to figure this sublimation printing out.
I purchase the other supplies I would need – sublimation ink and sublimation blanks to practice on. Once those arrived, I hooked up the printer, filled the tanks with the sublimation ink, and tried it out. I have to say, it was way easier than I had anticipated. I had watched a bunch of YouTube videos about it, but I know that most things have a learning curve that you don’t anticipate. This one did not. It really is as simple as right printer, right ink, hook it up, print and press. I already have a cricut heatpress, so I didn’t have to purchase that item. It doesn’t work with a regular iron, they don’t get hot enough.
I was pleasantly surprised with the results and I am so excited to do more with this sublimation printer. So far I have tried it on ornaments, key chains, and microfiber towels. The color comes out beautiful and on fabric it becomes part of the fabric, unlike the vinyl that sits on top. I have washed the towels to make sure it doesn’t fade, and they came out looking like I had just sublimated them. I put one of the key chains on my keys to test the durability as well. It’s been on my keys about 1 month now, and there is not a single scratch on the surface. I am excited for the fun new things I can create and offer as new products!
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