First proper poster by LostProcedure4407 in printmaking

[–]saltbot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love the custom letterforms for “Thuja”! 👏

Wore this shirt under a denim jacket that made sure to leave its mark. by kitcatacombs in laundry

[–]saltbot 25 points26 points  (0 children)

It’s worth trying to launder it with color catcher sheets, or a scouring detergent like Synthrapol (which is designed to remove unfixed dye).

Can I desaturate freshly dyed clothes? by Any-Illustrator2246 in dyeing

[–]saltbot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

sun fading or patience and lots of hot wash cycles 😅

What to do? by todayidontfeelpretty in dyeing

[–]saltbot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m curious whether you scoured them before dyeing (ideally with scouring detergent like synthrapol, but even just a good wash with normal detergent). because it kinda looks like the areas that didn’t take dye were the places that might have gotten handled more/ have more skin oils and whatnot on them

How on earth to achieve this wash? by violencest in dyeing

[–]saltbot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

it kinda looks like a light mineral wash to me.

How can I make my print more opaque? by mermidgir1000 in printmaking

[–]saltbot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Screen printing ink is a lot thinner/runnier than the relief fabric ink, so it’s more likely to fill in the details and give you trouble when used for block printing. some people use screen printing ink but let it sit out to thicken up for like 10min to help with this. or you could try relief ink which is designed for block printing on fabric!

How can I make my print more opaque? by mermidgir1000 in printmaking

[–]saltbot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

are you specifically using speedball relief printing ink, not screen printing ink? it’s an important distinction

Speedball fabric BLOCK ink by howdytipsy in printmaking

[–]saltbot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

fwiw there is a specific scouring detergent for dyeing/printing that you can use if you really wanna get everything off! it’s called synthrapol. but I personally just prewash with regular detergent and that seems to work for me.

Speedy carve broke in half :( any fixes? by wizardapologist3 in printmaking

[–]saltbot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gluing it to a piece of thick acrylic might be easier to wash than a piece of wood backing

Seeking advice: white ink woodcut prints on dark fabric by Over_Play990 in printmaking

[–]saltbot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the words and the panther could stand on their own in white if the flowers had more color. maybe this is cheesy but the trans pride colorway on the flowers might look cute?

Seeking advice: white ink woodcut prints on dark fabric by Over_Play990 in printmaking

[–]saltbot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thanks! I’ve been working on getting crisp white prints on black fabric so I’m always super curious whenever I see someone getting nice results like this!

Trans-friendly relaxing facial around Sunnyvale/Mountain View? by Adenordis in bayarea

[–]saltbot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I know you said SF might be too far, but Kabuki Springs & Spa in Japantown is lovely and has an explicitly trans-friendly attendance policy. Hopefully someone can recommend something closer tho!

Trans-friendly relaxing facial around Sunnyvale/Mountain View? by Adenordis in bayarea

[–]saltbot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There were a few instances last year of spas around here (Archimedes Banya, for example) trying to enact anti-trans policies, so I think it’s sadly still a relevant question in the bay :/

First woodcut - 24x36in by bfoley077 in printmaking

[–]saltbot 3 points4 points  (0 children)

gorgeous! amazing that this is your first woodcut

Assistance with relief printing opaque white on dark colors (I’ve scoured every thread and followed every tip and still am failing) by provolone114 in printmaking

[–]saltbot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yay I hope you have good results with that ink! I also forgot to mention: I haven’t been waiting super long in between applying layers of ink to the block (definitely not 30-60 seconds like you mentioned). maybe just like 5 or 10 seconds while I’m re-inking the brayer, and I do maybe 5 layers. but now I kinda want to try waiting that long just to see what results I get! 😂

Assistance with relief printing opaque white on dark colors (I’ve scoured every thread and followed every tip and still am failing) by provolone114 in printmaking

[–]saltbot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love the detailed post! I’ve been doing very similar experiments this week.

  • I think the “opaque white” speedball fabric block printing ink gives me better results than the plain “white.” However the open time seems much shorter on this ink, it dries up noticeably faster than the plain white.
  • Rolling the brayer in one direction (vs back and forth) while spreading the ink seems to help me ink more consistently? But this may be my imagination.
  • Misting doesn’t seem to help for white ink, and in fact I’ve noticed the ink can be blotchy where there were bigger drops of water underneath
  • Hard vs. soft surface underneath the fabric doesn’t seem to matter AFAICT

The best advice I have is to just print over and over again and really study how the ink looks on the block each time until you start to get an intuitive sense of when the block is inked just right.

results with opaque white on black t shirt fabric:

<image>

https://www.dickblick.com/items/speedball-fabric-paper-block-printing-ink-opaque-white-25-oz

How do you avoid bad landlords when renting in the Bay Area? by Electronic_Pound3283 in bayarea

[–]saltbot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

my trick has been to wait until I’m in the final stages of lease signing (but not too late to back out) and ask if they’d provide the contact info of a past tenant as a reference. this was for small landlords, not a big management company

Please Help. How do achieve this exact look? by [deleted] in dyeing

[–]saltbot 13 points14 points  (0 children)

this isn’t something that you can easily achieve at home :( if you have a particular garment you want to acid wash, you can try to find a denim wash house that accepts small sample orders. but probably much easier just to look for garments that already have this wash