What and how? Part II

It all started with good intentions and then blog got forgotten. Probably like many others, the amount of things that need to be done on a daily basis is overwhelming and something needs to give! But lets jump back into it! Part II is about sublimation. Sub...what?! It was a huge unknown to me as well! Sublimation is a way to permanently personalised items. No washing off, no rubbing off. It's a special process where sublimation kit is required for it to work:

- Sublimation ink and printer (under heat, it evaporates and transfers onto the substrate/item and there is stays). You can't use normal printer ink as it will wash out. - Heat press. You need this to transfer the image. Depending on what you are sublimating on, different temperature and time is requires. For example, to sublimate a mug, the required temperature is around 180℃. HOT HOT HOT!

- Sublimation products. No, a cheap mug from Asda or Wilko will not do the job. Sublimation ink will only work on things that have polyester coating, therefore special products are needed. So what can you sublimate? Well... list is almost endless! Mugs, keyrings, phone cases, cutlery sets, clothing, mousepads, drinking bottles, tea towels, photo slates, clocks, dressing gowns... As long as the product is designed for sublimation, it can be done!

There's so many advantages to sublimated products. Colourful, exactly as design image, permanent and dishwasher safe (ie mugs), huge variety of items that can be personalised that way. There's some restrictions though. As the inks are somewhat transparent, or at least that's how I would discribe it, they are best visible on white background and we've already covered the polester coating. Imagine using a red sharpie on a black tshirt - you couldn't be able to see it, or it would be barely visible. It's the same with sublimation. People have came up with some ways around it, though. You can use a special vinyl that would go onto the dark clothing, and then sublimate the vinyl.