Hot Off The Press

Here are four just-printed digital images on fabric that I did this morning. Two of these are on a heavy cotton/rayon fabric, and two are on Osnaburg homespun (not by me!) cotton. I soaked the fabric pieces in Bubble Jet Set yesterday, let them dry overnight, ironed flat this morning and adhered freezer paper, printed them, let them set for about an hour, peeled off the freezer paper, rinsed the images in tepid water with a bit of Synthrapol, and they're drying now.

I've been experimenting with dpi on my digital images -- higher dpi means more ink on the fabric to potentially wash off during rinsing. My images last week were at 150 dpi, these above are at 75 dpi, and I don't notice any difference in the finished and dried fabric. What that means is that I'm getting a strong image with as little ink washoff as possible.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I also wanted to try Golden Digital Ground (in matte white), and today I received the sale catalog for Dick Blick where the Digital Ground is on sale for 40% off. Right now, 8 oz. is $8.63, regular price over $14. So I ordered some to give it a try.

A note on my beloved Canon printer -- I'm using Canon's dye-based inks and I'm really happy with the images on fabric. I'm extremely impressed, because I've been using the printer constantly since before Thanksgiving and I haven't yet had to replace the original ink cartridges. The print monitor keeps telling me that several of the inkwells are low, but unlike Epson, these babies print until there isn't a drop of ink left in them. Epson would have forced me to change cartridges long before now, when they were still half full. (Okay, I'll get off my Epson-bashing soapbox!)

Just off the loom and laundered, these two lengths of fabric, both 20/2 cotton warp (the warp I beamed on a couple weeks ago to replace the linen warp from hell). The bottom piece has linen weft and the finished size is 20 inches by two yards. The top piece with shibori threads has crepe rayon weft, consequently it's very drapey and a bit crinkly, at a finished size of 15 inches by about 60 inches.

Next on the loom will be a very fine silk warp at about 18 inches wide.