If you guessed the one on the right because it seems not quite as sharp, you will be surprised to find out that the right side shows the Zinnia print on Sheer Heaven (looks a little blurry because of how the scanner sees through the translucence of Sheer Heaven). The picture on the left is the transfer done onto hot press watercolor paper.
What About Fabric?
This is a popular question when it comes to transfers. While some fabrics can be run through an inkjet printer and printed directly (see last issue - Whatever #5), there are many more that cannot - like ultrasuede, for example.
So we picked up some ordinary muslin at the fabric store (about $2/yd), and got out some Ultrasuede we already had on hand. We used a close-up image of some gladiolas and cut the print up for the sake of experimenting, and you can see the transfer results below.
In the center is the transfer to the muslin which we thought turned out quite well. At left and right are transfers done onto two colors of Ultrasuede - which turned out even better.
We were surprised that the images came out better on the rougher side of the Ultrasuede. Perhaps the smoother side is less absorbant due to some type of sizing?
The Sheer Heaven/Alcohol transfer method also seems to have little effect on the “hand” of the fabric - leaving it as soft as it was to begin with.
“And Then Some . . .”, Watercolor, ©2001 Jessica Wesolek, All Rights Reserved
