 Alternate ways to decorate Plastisol Transfers
Hi guys, This is just my second post here, but a really long one. This thing has gotten me excited with the stuff that can be done with it. I don't know if this is something new or i just found an existing thing on my own.
I've been doing Plastisol transfers for a couple of months now.
and fusing them on t-shirts. I was playing around with transfers
a week back and here are a few ways I have found to decorate
an already printed t-shirt.
1) We use plastisol inks mixed with powder adhesive. these is
screen printed on the transfer paper and dried with a heat
gun(I know its not the best way, but it still works.)
2) We fuse the transfer on the t-shirt(100% cotton) and use a
matt finish fusing paper to finish the process.
Now, last week i was playing around and put my business card on
the ink portion and put a fusing paper on top of it.
My card has the company name printed in golden and the rest is
black and red(thick deposit, so raised from the surface.)
after taking off the business card from the t-shirt I noticed 3
things :
1) The golden Ink became a part of the plastisol ink on the
t-shirt. The golden color only sat on the plastisol ink and
not on the t-shirt.
2) The other black and red ink did not jump to the plastisol
print. But, because it was a little raised from the surface of
the card, it left a very clean stamp on the Ink.
3) The card's rectangular shape got etched into the ink.
This is my understanding of what's going on. the glue in the
plastisol ink when heated melted. the golden color also melted(I
guess that's what you call it) and became a part of the
plastisol. The other colors on the card did not change but
because they were raised, they acted like a stamp on the
plastisol ink(my screen printer, who's has experience in printing
business cards tells me the ink used on the card is called "glossy ink".
Okay we're in india, so they don't call the inks with the standard
international names. At least the guys that are actually doing
the screen printing or the shopkeepers don't. they have their own
nomenclature so please bear with me, you'll need to do your own
R&D to get equivalents in your country or someone who's worked with
business cards could help me out.)
If the t-shirt is fused again with a matt fusing paper, the
embossing does go away and it comes back to normal. the golden
color does not change.
I have tried a similar effect by printing using another type PVC colors
that are used for printing business cards(what we get here in india is
from huber, dont know what you guys use) on a fusing paper and
then fusing the t-shirt with that paper. Just like the golden
color those colors also become part of the plastisol ink and did not effect the t-shirt.
I have not tried to wash the garment to see if either the golden
color or the embossing fades, but looking at the result my
gusstimate is neither will fade.
On the same lines, I've played around with sketching with a ball pen on the fusing paper and then fusing the t-shirt.
the Patter on the fusing paper does get transferred on the plastisol ink. I havent' done any wash tests on this. so
if you have any experience on this you could respond.
I can think of 2 effects that can be achieved with this :
1) Print standard templates of (eg.) stars and smilies on a fusing
paper with PVC inks used for business cards. Once t-shirt is
done, fuse using regular fusing paper and then use the template
to decorate when required. The template will only put your design
on the plastisol and not the t-shirt. Off the top of my head I can
think of cool swirly designs in golden and silver.
2) Get hi-res textures from the net. Convert to black and white.
Print. Expose a screen, Screen print on fusing paper with any ink that
will be raised from the surface and will not get effected by around 200 deg celcius temprature.
Then 1) print your transfer on the t-shirt, and fuse it with a regular fusing paper.
2) Use the fusing paper you just made to give your print a texture.
Possibilities are endless, you can give wodden, stone, swirly design, elephant skin textures to your prints.
The reason why I am posting this is because i havent come across such a paractice as yet. People who've been doing this for a while can give feedback on what they think. | 
