Ceramic Transfers Made Easy

How would you like to personalize and dress up those drab ceramic plates, cups, and saucers? It's not only possible, it's much easier than you might think. Handcrafting guru Heather has posted this excellent tutorial on doing your own ceramic transfers.

The first thing you'll need of course, are the ceramic pieces. Next, a screen printer will be able to put your graphics on transfer paper for you. The key here is using the right vitrifying ink. Then just cut them out, soak them to remove the backing, and arrange them on the ceramic pieces.

Finally, the pieces just need to be glazed and cooked in the kiln. Pottery studios are readily available in most places for crafty folks and even for children's parties. But can you eat off them, you ask? Certainly you can! What a great idea for a birthday or anniversary.

Article Source
Printing Transfers

Problems To Avoid When Color Printing

Problems do occur when you're color printing; and the effect is always on the total cost you are going to pay once your marketing materials such as your poster printing is delivered to you. But most of the problems can be avoided even before you have your print posters for example reproduced by your color printer. One way to do it is to communicate well with your color printer your specifications.

Indeed, many problems arise from poor communication between you and your color printer. The way you explain and describe your job order and how much the color printer quoted it is always the culprit. Many of the problems are actually avoidable if only you and your color printer are on the same wavelength. What I mean by this is that no problem would arise if both of you are speaking the same language.

You have to understand that you and your color printer actually speak different. What you want done is not the same as how they are going to do it. Unless both of you understand each other fully, you will never get the results you desire from the price you are willing to pay.

One of the most common mistakes is to take for granted the meaning of one (1) sheet of paper. One sheet is not equal to one page in printing talk. Printers do not run individual sheets of paper. Rather they run it numbers divisible by 4. So if you need a booklet for example, you have to ask for a quote on either 52 or 56 pages because it would be easier for them to divide it into 4. The correct way of asking for a quote on a booklet is to ask for a 28-page saddle stitched material. This would mean 56 pages of booklet stapled (saddle-stitched) in the middle.

Another mistake is in the description of the size of the material. Let's take the booklet as an example again. The standard sizes are 5.5 by 8.5 and 8.5 by 11. More or less than that and the printer would have a hard time giving you an exact quote. And don't forget to remember that the size of your print order would be the one AFTER you trimmed it.

Next mistake is to describe the paper or stock used. You have to realize that the quote would depend on the type of paper stock you are going to use, as well as the frequency you are going to use it. If it's the booklet again, you would probably have a different stock of the cover from that of the inside pages. For a poster printing order, it's easier because you will have one paper stock throughout your project. But you still have to specify because the kind of stock you're going to use would reflect the type of image you would want to have as a business.

One other big mistake is to submit the wrong file. Printers do have a specific file they require to get you the exact material for your results. The wrong file will definitely cost you more time, effort and money. You wouldn't want to have your printer print your file again because it would cost you double. And you would also not want to pay for something that you're not satisfied with.

Mistakes when color printing can actually be avoided if you communicate well with your printer what you want. The more your printer knows your requirements, the bigger the chances that you'll get the results you desire.

Article Source
Custom Silk Screen

Ceramic Decals: How Are They Made?

Screen-printing is an ancient method of printing invented in China during the Song Dynasty (960""1279 AD). This method of printing called silk-screening, because the mesh used to press the ink through was made of silk. Silk-screen printing invented in China used primarily to print on cloth, such as silk, cotton, and other fabrics.

Then approximately 1750 Simon Francois Ravenet who emigrated from France to England, before Simon immigrated he had been seeking a way to decorate ceramic designs using screen-printing. In England, Simon perfected a process of transferring artistic images to decorate ceramic pieces.

Simon Ravenet augmented screen-print as a direct printing method and created a non-direct form of printing using a new transfer system. This new transfer system used a medium constructed from a paper that was water-resistant that had previously been printed with a water-soluble adhesive.

Simon Ravenet printed the artistic design onto the water-resistant paper on top of the water-soluble adhesive and printed a clear ink over the design. The finished decalcomania then is immersed in water, the adhesive releases from the water-resistant paper leaving a decalcomania sandwiched between the water-soluble adhesive and the final clear coat of ink on the surface of the decalcomanias printed image. Applying the decalcomania to the surface of the ceramic piece, he wanted to decorate; the adhesive would allow it to adhere to the surface of the ceramic.

Simon Ravenet called this new transfer system a decalcomania. This new technology imported to the United States in Circa 1865. Then this process popularized in the United States, during the ceramic decorating craze of the mid-1870s. In the United States, the word decalcomania abbreviated to the version we use today decal.

Simon Ravenet had inadvertently invented water-slide off decals except it would be many decades before this new printing system would be use to print decals for promotions and product branding. Simon Francois Ravenet transfer system is different from the water-slide off decals we use today. The difference is in the types of inks Simon"s system employed were ceramic inks.

Ceramic inks are employed to produce ceramic water-transfer decals. The ceramic inks are manufactured by milling the ceramic particles into the ink. The ceramic particle during the milling process becomes infused with the ink. This ink is no longer common ink it is now ceramic ink.

When the ceramic transfer decal is applied to the ceramic piece then the ceramic piece is fired in a kiln the decal transfer becomes a part of the ceramic. Before this new transfer invention all pottery, earthenware, ceramic, and glass were decorated by hand painting a ceramic paint directly on the piece. The same process used to cause the ceramic particles infused in the paint, so when the pottery placed in a kiln to fired the pottery the paint or ink literally became one with the pottery.

The question; is this style of printing used today? Yes, fine china, every day dinnerware, mugs, drinking glasses, as well as industrial products employ ceramic decals. The industrial uses such as; laboratory test tubes, toilet and lavatory fixtures are decorated this way, too.

Article Source
Glass Transfers

Promotional Mugs - Different Printing For Different Mugs - Learn Here About Them Before You Design

Designers are great! They come up with all sorts of ideas for promoting companies that would look fantastic if they were possible. If you are in charge of designing a promotional mug for your company or your client, then pay attention to this article. It could save you a lot of time and embarrassment and even give you a few ideas for making your design look the best it can on a mug. Here you will learn about three very popular printing techniques along with their strengths and weaknesses.

Screen Printing: This is by far the oldest method of personalizing corporate mugs. The mugs are printed and then fire cured to so that your advertisement stays on your mugs. If you were to take a key to a freshly printed mug, the ink would scratch off very easily. Once the mug is cured, the ink is permanent. You can then take your key and scratch at your logo as long as you like. If will not scratch and it will not come off. Screen printing is not perfect, however. It takes a very professional printer to match the Pantone colours in your logo, for example. The ink changes colour when it is put in the kiln so it really takes experience and a little guess work to match the print colours to your pantone colours.

Another drawback of screen printing is that you are limited to ceramic inks. These are quite basic colors. You will not be able to achieve bright colors on dark mugs. You will also not get a bright pink or a fluorescent green screen printed onto a ceramic mug. The heat of curing would make it a dull color that bares little resemblance to the color your want. Fluorescent colors are best printed using dye-sub printing. You may also have heard dye-sub mugs referred to as photo mugs.

Dye-Sublimation Photo Mugs: Photo mugs are a brilliant invention. With dye-sublimation printing you can get the vibrant yellows and eye-squinting oranges. You can print bright colors onto dark backgrounds. You can even print in full color all the way around the surface of the mugs. Wow! Do you think these are the mugs for you? Well, unfortunately, they to have their negatives. Firstly, dye-sublimation printing can only be achieved on straight sided mugs such as Durham Mugs, Cambridge Mugs and a few new coffee mug styles such as the Deco Mug. If you want a curvy sided mug, you will need to choose a different printing method such as screen printing and or digital transfer printing. You will also not be able to print inside the mug as this involves digital transfers that need to be cured onto the mug at a much higher temperature than dye-sub mugs can withstand.

Digital Transfer Printing: Digital printing is not done as often as it used to be. It was the predecessor to photo mug printing and it is more expensive. That said, there are certain things that can only be done with digital transfer printing, With transfer printing, you can print inside the mugs or along the handle making your promotional mugs really stand out. Transfer printing does take a long time, however, so if you are in a hurry, you can forget it. Each transfer print needs to be carefully applied by hand. You could actually screen print about twenty mugs in the same time it take to apply a transfer.

Choosing the right print method for what you are trying to achieve can really make your promotion a success.

Article Source

Printing Transfers

Top 5 Benefits of Screen Printing

All of us are now aware of screen printing. It is a method where ink which is used for printing is passed through either a fabric or a netted/webbed surface. This is extended into a frame. A design stencil is used and with the aid of the squeegee, it is possible to transfer the colors into the stencil portions which are unblocked. This is a widely used method in the production of clothes like shirts and other garments.

With the latest fashion trends, many businesses are getting worried and anxious when it comes to using screen printing, the reason being for every color which needs to be incorporated on the garment, a separate screen needs to be used. There would be an increase in the production cost, thereby increasing the price of the end product. It is also not a wise decision to reduce the production quantity, as it would not be an economical proposition.

In spite of the above disadvantages, screen printing has top 5 benefits too which are worth mentioning:

1) Economical: When it comes to creating many copies - When you have to make copies in a wholesale quantity, screen printing is the right option. A simple example is tarpaulins for putting in your locality. The same panels are going to used again and again if you are going to make many copies. It is an economical way and works out cheaper. Cost recovery becomes easier and you would end up making good profits.

2) Quicker process - Screen printing is a quick process as compared to other methods of advertising. When your advertisement is viewed by millions of prospective customers, it would definitely convert some of these prospects into your clients. The process of screen printing is simple and hassle free. The only requisites are the screen panels and the requisite materials. With these, you can kick start your business. The colors dry quickly and you could start showing the ads to the targeted audience.

3) Larger Designs - When it comes to larger designs, screen printing is the ideal choice. You can choose to be more creative and resourceful when it comes to selecting the screen panel's size. It is possible to make larger counterparts of the design, without any distortion to the texts and images. When it comes to digital printing, it is not very easy to make adjustments.

4) Wide range of utility - Screen printing can be used effectively for a variety of things. Screen printing is used for printing designs on clothes, fabrics and garments. It also caters to printing on product labels, printing of circuit boards, adding different designs to balloons etc.

5) Sturdy and Tough - Screen prints are tough and sturdy. In spite of exposing the screen printed fabrics to harsh conditions, the colors do not appear weary and dull. It would take quite some time for the colors and texts to become dull and unclear.

The colors used in screen printing are also environment friendly as compared to plastic inks. The colors are attractive and vivacious.

Article Source

Turnkey Screenprinting Service