Material Cookbook || Chapter 10: Heat Transfer Print

Materials for Heat Print List:

  • Heat print transfer Paper
  • Wood or Acrylic pieces
  • Bags, fabric
  • A laser Printer
  • Heat transfer print Machine.

Instruction for Knitting:

Step 1: Using a Laser Printer print your designs on the heat transfer paper.  Ensure that the designs are printed in  so they will be printed right side up. Take note the type of paper you are printing on and match the surface accordingly.

Step 2: Cut the paper designs as close to the edge as possible and align them onto the surfaces accordingly.

Step 3: Check what kind of material you are working with and set the machine’s temperature accordingly. Our machine is in degree Celsius, so  we have to translate accordingly from Fahrenheit.

Step 4: Sandwich your print and the surface you want to transfer print on with wax paper and lay them on the Heat transfer machine. Note that the printed side of the design should be facing the surface.

Step 5: Seal the surface and the print inside the machine for the allocated amount of time and then remove it from the machine.

Step 6: Depending on the material, leave it to cool or peel the design off immediately.

 

Reflection:

We printed on Inkjet printers initially, because most sites said inkjet was the way, and the results were horrifying. The ink never dried, and could be wiped off cleanly even after being left there for a week.

  

Make sure your Temperature for the heat transfer machine is hot enough, if not the image will not transfer properly.

Acrylic warps under high heat. If using Acrylic remeber to flatten them immediately after taking them out from the heating machine so that they will cool flat.

Acrylic also shrinks in the heat for some reason.

For Acrylic, the time used is 45 seconds on 176 degrees Celsius, the machine got stuck at 173 degrees, but that worked fine too.

 

 

 

Material Cookbook || Chapter 8: Liquid Etching

Materials for Liquid Etching List:

  • Fabric etching materia
  • Iron
  • Silk Rayon mix
  • Silk Screen

Instruction for Liquid Etching:

Step 1: Draw or place your silkscreen pattern on the cloth

Step 2: Apply the etching liquid on the fabric

Step 3: Leave to dry, and later Iron off the dried etching liquid.

Step 4: Wash the cloth off.

Reflection:

Drawing with the etching material is not very precise, the lines of the drawing came out more undefined that what I thought.

Finding that specific fabric was problematic.

Material Cookbook || Chapter 7: Latex, Bleaching and Resin

Materials for Liquid Latex List:

  • Liquid Latex
  • Liquid Latex hardener
  • Objects with interesting shapes or interesting moulds ( Note that the mould should not be silicone because they stick to each other)
  • Weighing scale
  • Containers
  • Releasing spray

Instruction for Liquid Latex:

Step 1: Prep all your objects you want to cast or fill by spraying it with a coat of release spray. Ensure that the objects you are casting has walls to contain the liquid latex.

Step 2: Pour the Liquid latex into a separate container, and measure the volume using the weighing scale.

Step 3: Add the hardener into the mixture (note that the Hardener is 0.02 times the volume of the Liquid Latex added)

Step 4: Mix well

Step 5: Add the mixture into the moulds or containers prepared in step 1. Make sure that you pour from one spot to reduce air bubbles created in the mixture.

Step 6: Leave to dry for 24 hours.

Reflection:

I have to find objects that are solid on all sides, my bear head has a gap at the bottom that I taped up and it was okay after that.

Mix enough Latex to fill your mould, my bear’s front was nearly touching the base of the container, so there is a little thin hole there.

 

Bleaching Material List:

  • Dark coloured linen or cotton fabric
  • 100% concentrated Bleach
  • A stencil (optional)

Instruction for Bleaching:

 

Step 1: Get a Cotton or Linen cloth

Step 2 (optional):  Lay a stencil over it

Step 3: Spray or apply as much bleach you want.

Step 4: Leave to dry till what ever colour you want

Step 5: when the colour is to your liking wash off all the bleach

Reflection:

Be sure your Cloth is Cotton or Linen, the bleach will not react if it is any other material.

 

Materials for Resin List:

  • Resin
  • Resin hardener
  • Interesting moulds
  • any glitter or other things you wish to throw into the Resin
  • Weighing scale
  • Containers

Instruction for Resin:

Step 1:  Prepare your silicone moulds by filling it with glitter or beads.

Step 2: Pour the Resin latex into a separate container, and measure the volume using the weighing scale.

   

Step 3: Add the hardener into the mixture (note that the Hardener is 0.02 times the volume of the Resin added)

Step 4: Mix well

Step 5: Add the mixture into the moulds prepared in step 1. Make sure that you pour from one spot to reduce air bubbles created in the mixture. Do this quick, because the hardener acts fast.

Step 6: Leave to dry for 24 hours.

Reflection:

Warning: It gets super hot!

If you are using plastic moulds, especially the ones that are very rigid, you may hear cracking sounds, and the plastic may crack.

Some of the material like yarn might bleed and influence the colour of the resin. No harm done.

Sometimes the bubbles appear at the bottom of the moulds and create weird surface textures, might want to consider sanding them off.

In Class Examples

Material Cookbook || Chapter 6: Vacuum forming and Thermochromic printing

Vacuum Forming List:

  • PVC Plastic
  • Objects with interesting shapes (note that this must be able to withstand high temperatures if not they will warp when boiling)

Instruction for Vacuum Forming:

Step 1: Turn on the machine and it heat up.

Step 2: We need an object that will not warp when heated. Place that object on the machine stage like so:

Step 3: lower the object into the machine and cut a sheet of PVC to fit over the mouth of the machine.

Step 4: Secure the PVC in place and then pull the heater over the PVC. When the PVC is sufficiently heated it will become smooth.

Step 5: When the plastic is heated, push the heating component back into place, and lift the stage with the object into the the PVC.

Step 6: Quickly turn on the vacuum function so that the PVC will adhere to the object shape. When the shape is to your liking, stop the vacuuming and remove everything.

Reflection:

I left the plastic to cool a bit too long, hence when vacuuming the edge was less defined then it could be.

We want objects that whose head is not wider then the base so that it can be removed later. If not the plastic would vacuum form and seal the object inside of it.

Thermochromic Printing Material List:

  • Thermochromic pigment
  • Silkscreen
  • Paper Templates (optional)
  • Fabric paint of any colour

Instruction for Boiling thermoplastics:

Step 1: Prepare silkscreen patterns, or paper templates for printing.

Step 2: Prepare Cloth for print

Step 3: Mix Thermochromic powder and the Fabric paint for silkscreen. We used 2 spoons of paint and 1 spoon of powder. In this case we used the clear paint so the colours disappear when heated.

Step 4: Lay template and/or silkscreen over the cloth and proceed to print.

Step 5: Leave designs to dry.

Reflection:

The coloured pigment came out dull on every other fabric that is not white. Even on white fabric they showed up faintly. If we want a darker line art there is always black I guess.

Material Cookbook || Chapter 5: Thermoplastics

Thermoplastic Material List:

  • Thermoplastic Fabric (100% polyester)
  • Rubber bands
  • Aluminium Foil
  • Pot for boiling
  • Objects with interesting shapes (note that this must be able to withstand high temperatures if not they will warp when boiling)

Instruction for Boiling thermoplastics:

Step 1: Cut the cloth to the desired length

Step 2: Wrap your objects in the cloth and tie them down with rubber bands

Step 3: Fold them in Aluminium foil when done

Step 4: Drop them in the pot of boiling water and boil for 30mins

    

Step 5: Remove from wrappings.

Reflection:

Acrylic cannot stand the high temperatures of boiling the thermoplastic, so be prepared for some warping.

Folding the material in Aluminium foil works, but only for simpler patterns. As you can see above the foil just becomes very crumpled and does not hold the folds shape. If we want to attempt the ‘origami’ kind of folds, prepare paper.

In Class Examples:

Material Cookbook || Chapter 4: Smocking Technique

Smocking Material List:

  • Fabric
  • Thread (elastic or not)
  • Sewing Machine

Instruction for hand sewn smocking:

Flower Patterned Smocking:

Step 1: Draw a grid on the cloth.

Step 2: Sew a small section of the points 1, 2, 3 and 4 to form the outline of a square

Step 3: Pull thread to gather the fabric in a cross pattern

Step 4: Sew across the fabric to keep them taut

Step 5: String a bead (Optional)

Images for instructions are taken from: https://mellysews.com/smocking-tutorial/

Reflection:

For this pattern, it is important to leave space along the border, if not the fabric will bunch and not form the petal for the flower.

We need to leave a space between the flowers, if not the petals will overlap and sink each other.

The opposite side works as a cute box pattern as well.

 

Leaf Patterned Smocking (Canadian Smocking):

This is Leaf design in Canadian smocking.I have used 2cm square graph.I feel if I had used 1.5cm graph the design … | Canadian smocking, Smocking pattern, Smocking

Leaf Smocking pattern found online

Step 1: Draw a square grid on the cloth.

Step 2:  Mark the cloth as such

Step 3: Sew the ends of every diagonal line together.

Reflection:

I like this pattern, it is simple.

Instructions for Sewing Machine Smocking:

Step one: Sew your fabric, bottom thread is elastic, and the top is normal thread. Your stitch line should be straight with large intervals (setting three on the machine in school.)

Step 2: Sew as many rows as you like, and have fun with it.

Reflection:

The tightness of the elastic wound in the bobbin with affect how tightly gathered the cloth is.

Remember to pull a bit more elastic to tie it off, so it would not fly into the fabric.

If the elastic used is thick (meaning if the fabric is thick and needs thicker elastic to hold) use the zig-zag pattern and stretch it while you sew it down. the thread should hold the elastic to the cloth like so.

Material Cookbook || Chapter 3: Felting and Applique Technique

Felting Material List:

  • Felting Wool
  • Felting Needles
  • Hot Water
  • Soap
  • Foam block (backing)

Instructions for Dry Felting

Step 1: Roll the felt wool into a any shape you wish

Step 2: Lay it on the foam block and stab it with the needle until firm.

Step 3: To connect pieces or thicken parts lay more layers of wool and stab the part until the wool has fused.

Reflections:

Be careful of your fingers when you are stabbing, it is very easy to get impatient and start stabbing without thought. While it will not cause massive damage if you are stabbing gently it still hurts.

If the material made is too big you can always cut them off.

Felting is like sculpting with a needle, but you should work with a slightly bigger surface them slowly self it down, because it becomes more tightly compact hence shrinks.

Instructions for Wet Felting

Step 1: Lay the layers of felt wool over each other in different directions

 

Step 2: Lay it over some plastic and pour hot water over it.

Step 3: Add soap on it and start rubbing the fibres

Step 4: Add a different coloured wool over the wool to create interesting patterns. Can keep building layers till a certain thickness has been created.

Step 5: When the hot water and soap stops helping the material to fuse, switch over to needle.

 

Reflections:

Be careful it is hot.

Layer the material in various directions or the material will not fuse properly. Mine sprouted various holes, because of the way I snaked the wool

In Class Pictures:

Applique Material List:

  • Beads
  • Threads
  • Fabrics with different patterns
  • Anything you want to add on top
  • Sewing Machine

 

 

Instructions for Wet Felting

Step 1: Arrange Fabrics to the way you want

Step 2: Sew them down using different sewing patterns.

Step 3: Hand Sew the beads on

 

Reflection:

Having fun using different patterns for sewing down the fabric and using different threads for the top and bottom thread to give tiny accents when they peak through. The problem is my threads do not have a lot of contrasts so it is not very obvious.

I would like to try adding beads.