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Hi,
Im new to garment printing.
I am a graphic designer and want to start making limited edition fine art prints on garments. I have all my printing equipment and chemicals except inks.
Is it possible to mix plastisol inks like one would mix acrylic or oil paints?
I am not very concerned about the colors being exactly the same on every garment.
Kind regards,
-Alex
Alex,
If you are not printing on fabric, you do not need plastisol inks. You can use poster inks(solvent). The only reason we use plastisols on fabrics is because they wrap themselves around cotton fibers, then cure, giving T-shirts the adhestion and washability that the consumer market requires.
If you do need Plastisol inks, make sure you have a heat chamber that can raise the tempurture to 325 degrees for 2 minutes, Plastisols will gel up at lower temps, but if they do not "crosslink" completley, they will wash out.
I don't know how you mix acrylics and oil paints, but I can safely say, NO NO NO NO, the chemistry is completly different, plastisols are not water soluble or compatible with solvents, it is it's own technolgy.
It doesn't matter if your concerned about color, if you wanted too, you could re produce colors very accurately with any of these systems.
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