first image transfer

The theory is using the ink laid down by a laser or ink jet printer,  glue is spread on the image and the printed page is put face down on a surface, paper,wood, fabric, glass,. Left to firmly dry, the printed paper is then moistened and with gentle rubbing the layers of paper are removed leaving the reverse of the printed image.

Social media postings by crafters and artists appear to make the process easy.

I used modge podge, a proprietary glue used specifically for image transfer. I spread it in a  colour laser print on good quality printing paper.

Left overnight the dry I soaked the paper with a flannel and then sprayed water until the paper was transparent , rubbing in a circular movement the paper easily came off in the first two layers, a final coating was difficult to remove without damaging the ink.  I was left with an inked image with a faint bloom, the ink had come off in places, particularly where the ground paper had been cut.

I will try again with a high contrast black and white image where I may be more successful.

a new press at home

a friend loaned me a simple press, two rollers, a composite plate that will take a A3 paper. It took some time to get the tension right, the blankets have a very bad habit of moving and have to be reset every few prints. Struggling with new ink and a thinner acrylic sheet ( I almost scribed through the acrylic), I found a underwiped plate looked right for my first attempt

some elemental mistakes, I drew on the opaque backing of the sheet, but missed a couple of lines, reinking part of the plate of course gave me a very uneven print in the ghost copy

I found a guide sheet with gridded lines made printing much easier to place print and paper on the plate. I used baby oil to clean the plate and I learnt that one should never attempt to clean oil based ink with baby oil in a white tiled bathroom, cleaning up took up more the half the printing time!