Transfer Dyes

3 March 2012

I have a bit of a love hate relationship with Transfer or Disperse Dyes.

I love some of the work other people produce with Transfer Dyes (Angie Hughes, or the ladies doing fabulous things at Morley College) but I don't love what I have done in the past.

Part of it may be the frustration of using the domestic iron (the heat press at Morley sounds fantastic - I am green with envy).

But Transfer Dyes (or to be more accurate, Transfer Printing) is on the agenda with the City and Guilds course so last week saw me re-kindling my relationship with Transfer Printing.

Actually, the experience was not so bad, though I cannot imagine how I can use this technique to produce a consistent piece of 1m of fabric.


Because I have used this technique before I tried something a bit different.  I crunched the paper before painting it.  I used Leaf Green and Wine Red (shown below).


Then I cut the papers into strips and 'wove' them.


Then I wrestled with the domestic iron!  Actually the results, though not consistent, are not so bad (that is the printed fabric on the right hand side).  I used a teflon sheet under the paper when I ironed it and protected the iron with parchment paper.  But as you can see, although I was convinced that I had used constant pressure, the is a gradient of effect on the fabric.


Meanwhile others in the group were experimenting with some different techniques.  I will be interested to see how this comes out - applying the transfer dyes to the paper with a dry brush.




2 comments

  1. My latest pieces are all transfer paint/disperse dye - I love it and have gotten lots of consistent, beautiful results. Good luck and have fun with it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kit, you have!! Do you use an ordinary domestic iron or have you got access to a heat press?

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