OHP Transfers

This image is of Te Whare Tapu superimposed on a Matariki sky to show where the star formations align with the top of the whare. It is not perfect as there are a couple of places where the ink didn’t quite take and a crease in the fabric shows up but I have used this example to showcase both the print and these potential problems

I had read about printing on OHP (Overhead transparencies) and using citrasolv to transfer the image to fabric. I was keen to have a go but every time I printed on OHP the result was a blurry mess. Then I discovered that you need to have different OHP according to the type of printer. OHPs come designed to work with laser printers or ink jet printers. The inkjet OHPs have a sort of rough side that holds the ink so it doesn’t blur all over the sheet. It is the rough side that is printed on. I had an inkjet printer but was using laser OHPs.

Problem number one solved. Now I cold print a image that was what I wanted it to look like.

Next problem - Citrasolv wasn’t available in New Zealand. Would other citric cleaners work. I tried a common brand from the supermarket. I sprayed it onto the printed side of the OHP and placed my fabric on top. I should have realised that when I could see some of the spray drops on the OHP, those areas would bleed - they did. so the next option was to spray the fabric. It has to be quite wet. And Viola I had a print. I carefully lifted the OHP and had to respray the fabric in a couple of places but if you are careful when doing this you can put the OHP back down exactly where it was and not get a shadow effect. So second problem sorted.

This gives another option for transfer to fabric and probably other surfaces as well. The example above is not perfect. you need to be sure that any crease marks have been ironed away as these will show up as lines in the print. Sometimes even after ironing there will be the remainder of a line where the crease was and this will show up on the print