I have a new printer: the Epson Workforce 1100. I am impressed by the build quality, low price, and most importantly, the image quality. It prints images up to 13 inches wide. It uses pigment-based ultra-chrome ink that comes in large capacity cartridges. The cost of ink is fair so I recommend using Epson ink. The printer feeds from the top with less clearance for thick media. Therefore, the carrier preparation I use has changed.
I simply attach opaque white contact paper to the back of clear contact paper and trim them to the finished size of the "canvas". When I am ready to print, I attach this double carrier to the back of the silk and trim the silk to the size of the canvas for feeding into the printer. The clear-and-opaque contact paper combination feeds through the printer well, removes cleanly, and can be re-used several times.
If I intend to stabilize the silk permanently, retaining the "squareness" of the image for my thread-painted work or for silk notecards, I use Perfect Stick stabilizer by Floriani thru RNK Distributing instead of contact paper.
As before, I treat my silk habotai (8 mm) with Bubble Jet Set 2000 from C. Jenkins Co. After printing I wait 24 hours and gently wash off any excess ink with Bubble Jet Set rinse.
After teaching a Digital Silk Painting Class at the John C. Campbell Folk School in late January, I found that the following physical and virtual layering combinations moved us toward the goal of simultaneously taking advantage of both mediums to enhance meaning for our digital imagery. See the galleries of my own work and of student work at my web site. Suggested combinations:
- Images printed on hand-dyed silk
- Photographs of hand-dyed silk merged with digital imagery
- Gray-scale images printed on silk, then painted
- Colored images printed at low opacity as an underpainting in preparation for hand-painting with silk dyes and/or thread painting
- Layers of printed sheer silk organza. Or a layer of organza over a layer of silk habotai.
- Colored abstract imagery with imaginary images revealed through negative space painting. See my work: "Where the Bright Things Are"
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