Please enjoy a rerun of my experiments with digital grounds; this is where it all began.
In the last post I tested Digital Grounds and cotton fabric, and today I’m testing Digital Grounds on sheer organza fabric.
Printing on organza is always a little challenging because of the sheerness of the fabric, but working with sheers is such a delight and can produce such beeeeuuuutiful results.
I originally painted one half of a sample piece of organza with Digital Ground Clear Gloss (for porous surfaces) but the results were just awful – it looked like a piece of plastic and you can see the results below. This is the upper side; the under side was worse!
So instead I painted one half of the organza with Digital Ground for non-porous surfaces and while the surface still looked a little plastic-like, it wasn’t totally too bad. Even though organza is a porous surface, using the ground for non-porous surfaces didn’t seem to have a negative effect and in fact the results are just gorgeous! The left side of the sample below is untreated; the right side is coated with the ground and you can clearly see the difference.
The colors on the untreated side (left) are a little washed out while the colors on the treated side (right) are rich and saturated. The surface treatment left a slight shine which is noticeable through the image on the upper side, and moreso on the under side, however rather than detracting from the appearance, it adds a luminous quality to the image – it’s quite nice.
I ironed the organza to a sheet of freezer paper to send it through the printer and this is what the paper looked like after I removed the organza. You can see that on the coated side of the fabric (right side) that most of the ink was retained on the print as opposed to the untreated side of the fabric (left side) where most of the ink was transferred through the fabric and left on the paper carrier.
This is what the print looks like when placed over the top of a patterned background. The image on the treated side is easily visible while still maintaining a good sheerness, while the image on the untreated side is less discernible and blends more into the background.
So the results of Digital Grounds on sheer fabric using Digital Ground for non-porous surfaces … a big thumbs up!
This is a great product to use if you want to produce clear and colorful images on sheers.
Next I’ll be testing dryer sheets (simply because I can’t help myself).
(Thanks to Sukanto Debnath for the great photo that I used for my print.)
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I think this is really gorgeous ! It is impressing to see the different “behaviours” of the
treated organza sections. Makes me want to test it myself …. TFS !
Thanks Sabine, unfortunately the camera doesn’t do justice to just how gorgeous the results really are. It’s a *very* noticeable difference and just beautiful!
Linda
I am a big fan of these products. Your experimentation is so helpful and time saving, not to mention materials not wasted. Thanks so much for this informative testing!
Thanks Judy, I always like to share
And this is so much fun it’s hard to keep to myself.
Linda
I love this! I have used the treated organza, but was not terribly imprssed with the results. I have some untreated organza and hope to play with it this weekend.
I have an HP printer, so the paper feed is not straight and printing on unusual surfaces like metal wouldn’t work well. I have a sample bottle of the non-porus digital ground and never had anything to use it for. Now I do!
Thanks so much!
Chris
I just love your website by the way! I have found it to be one of the most useful sites online.
Good luck with your experiments Chris, I’m sure you’ll love the results.
And I’m glad you enjoyed the website – I love to share
Linda
Linda,
You are doing a terrific job of comparing these products on different fabrics. Thanks for sharing all this knowledge with the rest of the world! Jan
Thanks Jan, I’m glad you’re finding the information useful
Linda
Thank you so much. You have solved a problem I was having figuring out how to print words on sheer so that they are readable over a busy background. Huzzaah, now I can finish my project!
Thanks Dianne, I haven’t tried lettering on organza using this stuff – yet – but I’m sure it will produce very readable wording.
Linda
I think that is exciting. I look forward to our class in January, with DDFA. I am going to order the Golden Digital Grounds as I don’t see the product around here.
Hi RuthAnne, I don’t think you’ll find the digital grounds in stores yet – I haven’t seen it anywhere yet so ordering online is probably the best choice.
We’ll only be doing a general overview of this product in your January class but I will have lots of samples to show you
Linda
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thanks for sharing the results of testing digital ground on organza. I’m wondering what saturation level you used for the color in the photo. Would less saturation have changed the amount of ink that goes through the organza to the freezer paper?
I bought my Golden iDgital grounds at an art supply store in Saskatoon,SK so it is available at some retail outlets.
Hi Louise, With my Epson printers I always use my photo setting so I get the best possible print. But regardless of what printer you use, when printing on sheer fabric you are going to have ink transfer through the fabric to the backing sheet, more or less depending on what printer setting you use.
Good to know you can get the digital grounds in your store; I still haven’t seen it on the shelves here in the US yet and have to order it over the internet.
Hi Linda! I’m so happy to have found your site… I’m making my own invitations for my wedding in September, and have been playing around with printing the invitation wording on organza, which will overlay one of our engagement photos on cardstock. I figured out how to run the organza through the printer, but the lettering is a little faint and I’m worried that our grandparents won’t be able to read it. I have two questions about Digital Grounds:
I singed the edges of the organza to keep it from raveling after printing on it. Would I still need to do that after treating with Digital Grounds? Is this stuff flammable? (would I catch my invitations on fire, instead of melting the edges a little?)
How much surface area can be treated with a 16oz bottle of this stuff? I need to know how much I should order
Thank you again, your blogs are incredibly informative!
Hi Julia, Personally I wouldn’t be using digital grounds for the purpose you intend. There is a technique involved in learning how to use it on sheer fabrics and it also changes the hand of the fabric so the result is stiff and “plastic like”; perhaps not the desired result you are expecting.
However to answer your questions; I’m not sure if you would want to singe the edges, this is something you would have to test to see how it turned out, but digital grounds is not flammable to the best of my knowledge however fabric is, so when they are combined I’m not sure what the result would be. A small amount of digital grounds goes a long way so a 16oz bottle should keep you busy for a very long time