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Dye Migration, the Screenprinter’s Nemesis. Part 1

Dye migration is one of the biggest issues in screenprinting these days. I get more calls to help with this problem than with any other. It can be really insidious, as you can sometimes print and it doesn’t show up for weeks. I”ll cover a few topics this week, starting with testing the fabric. We…

Mis-print Monday. Out Damn Spot. Sorry, not.

A garment dyed shirt is a wonderful thing, comfortable and they come in beautiful colors. However, there are a few limitations that go along with these shirts and one is that you cannot remove the ink if you make a mistake. Best practices for garment dyed shirts: 1. Use a good emulsion 2. Get a thorough…

Web Wednesday -What Color is the Dress? What does it mean for Garment Decorators?

I found the best scientific explanation of the white gold vs blue black dress debate which has been raging on social media on the Wired Magazine site. It mainly has to do with the context and adjustments your eyes make. This is just an extreme case where it falls right on the boundary of interpretation. If…

Misprint Monday – Sometimes It’s the Shirt

Discharge printing is getting more and more popular as a way to produce soft prints on soft shirts. It doesn’t always work. The process is that the discharge agent in the ink combines with water and heat to neutralize the dye in the shirt. The color of the ink then goes into the fabric and there is…

Positively Posicharge

When our buddy Mark Bailey of Sanmar first mentioned that they would be releasing a new performance fabric known as Posicharge which would eliminate the need for low-bleed inks, I was dubious.  A couple of weeks ago we had a chance to work with this product in production.  IT WORKS! Sanmar produced a nice little video…

Misprint Monday – Not Distracted by Gold

Congratulations to the Canadian hockey team for winning the gold medal with a great final game against Sweden. I’m sure many screenprinters can relate to the way my mind works. I love hockey and I’m enjoying the game, but I’m looking and it appears on the screen that possibly the dye of the red Canadian…

Dye Migration Mitigation

A big shoutout to Mike Parker of The Brand Design Co. (Claremore, OK) for submitting these photos showing successful dye migration mitigation.  The top photo shows a print utilizing two base layers of Rutland Super Poly White which, while formulated for printing on 100% polyester, was not enough to block the dye migration on this very difficult substrate.…