I spent a full day getting all 16 sample designs printed and finished. I decided to use the Mimaki Tx400 at university to print my fabrics as I felt more comfortable overseeing the process as I could ensure there would be no misunderstanding or mistake.
When using fabric for printing it needs to be a specialist type which is coated in a gum that reacts with the printer dyes. I bought my fabric from Whaleys Ltd in Bradford. I chose a cotton canvas as I wanted a fabric with a large weave to excentuate the brush strokes found in my designs. I also wanted a fabric with a similar texture to an artist's canvas to convey the idea that the design has been painted straight onto the fabric. The cotton element to the fabric was important because I still wanted it to be soft and drapable as one of my final outcomes was designs for curtains. The cotton canvas is a very versitile fabric as it is also durable enough to use for upholstery, making it the perfect fabric for interior design uses.
Bellow is an image of the Mimaki printer at work. It is the same concept as a traditional ink jet printer but the heads and inks are adapted to print on fabric. The printer is also very large to allow large rolls of fabric or paper to be mounted.
After printing the fabrics have to go through a finishing process. This involves first steaming the fabric to fix the dyes. The dyes react with the heat of the steam which causes the dyes to fix into the fabric, this also further develops the clarity of the colour and overall design. Steaming takes 20 minutes.
The fabrics then need to be washed to get rid of any excess dye and stop any further running. Again this needs to be done in hot water to ensure the dyes react enough to fix. This can be a long process as all of the excess dye needs to be washed away, other wise the colours run as the fabric drys.
