This is a demonstration for the POM guild on1. how to print onto silk using a laser printer.
Disclaimer 1: I am not an expert on printing of fabric.
Disclaimer 2: I only know how to print onto fabric using a laser printer, in this case black ink only. Maybe for colour laser printers, the method differs.
Disclaimer 3: If I hadn't left this to the last minute, I would have found silk without deep creases in it, I would have taken a better photograph.
The following are the steps:
1. Chose your image - I photographed a poem, "Es Brent", by Yiddish poet Mordechai Gebirtig. The poem was in a book owned by my later Aunt Nechama, a book of Yiddish stenography. Ask me about that one later.
Your image size is limited to the width of the printer paper (8 1/2" X 11").
2. Prepare the freezer paper. Cut a piece of freezer paper the size of regular letter printer paper (8 1/2" X 11").
3. Iron the silk. I used two different silks for the demonstration, a dupionni and a 5mm pongee. Don't precut the silk to 8 1/2" X 11 - it should be slightly larger than the 8 1/2" X 11" freezer paper.
4. Iron the freezer paper onto the silk. Put the shiny side of the freezer paper on top of the silk and iron on the unshiny side the of the paper. (Don't ask me about which side of the silk to iron onto because I can't differentiate between the front and back of the fabric).
5. Cut the fabric - Preferably using a sharp rotary cutter, trim the fabric the the freezer paper size. It is important that the cut be exact i.e. no loose threads because they could gum up the printer and make this whole process very expensive i.e. repairing or replacing the printer... and reiron to make sure the freezer paper is firmly attached.
6. Practice Print - Put an "X" on a piece of printer paper and put the paper "X" up into your printer and print your image onto it. Depending on where the "X"comes out on the paper, you will know how to feed the freezer papered fabric ("FPF") into the printer.
Each printer is different so figure it out before you feed the FPF into the printer. It may differ if you're putting it into the paper tray or feeding it through like for an envelope.
7. Printing onto the fabric - Put the FPF into the printer, cross your fingers, and print.
8. Iron the printed image. - Iron on the printed fabric. I always use a piece of cotton on top of the inked side so that I don't ruin my iron (cheaper than the printer, but still...)
9. Remove the freezer paper from the fabric. From the dupionni, it released easily. From the pongee, it was a little harder.
The fabric can then be used like any other silk fabric, used whole or cut up into smaller pieces.
And so ends my demonstration.
On another note, Devora has bought me some laser printer transfer paper and I will at some point try that method as well. I believe that in that one, you print the image onto the transfer paper and then iron the printed image onto the fabric. It may have advantages because you can print onto smaller and/or irregular sized fabric pieces.
