More Sunprinting Testing

Today was a beautiful hot sunny day so I decided to do more sunprinting testing. A week or so ago I did some testing with Dye-na-flo paint. Since then I ordered some Setacolor Soliel. I wanted to test red and blue, heat setting vs not heat setting and 2 types of heat setting. Here are the results.

The codes are "S" for Setacolor and "D" for Dye-na-flo

1 = control piece, jsut after sunprinting, 2 = heat set with iron and washed, 3 = heat set in the dryer and washed, 4 = not heat set and washed.

The washed samples were washed in hot water.

General comments:

- The fabrics were painted full strenght, directly from the bottles

- Both have to be heat set with ironing, the dryer had no effect

- Even with ironing, both paints have some fading 

- I think the Setacolor faded more on the samples that were not heat set

- The Setacolor has a stronger odor - I had to wear a mask while using it.

Both work equally well even though the Setacolor is sold as being specifically formulated for sun printing. I would use Dye-na-flo going forward because of the odor to the Setacolor. If you have any allergies to chemical smells, stick to Dye-na-flo.

Comments

[rayna]

Even with the fading, they're terrific. So many buttons!! What fun. I haven't done sun printing in eons - makes me want to try again.

[Lynda]

I've started to do a lot more testing and record keeping just lately - saves an awful lot of frustration. Even with some of these pieces faded they would still work well together.

[Summerset]

Interesting. The images seem a bit sharper on the Setacolor, not as blurry. The Setacolor definitely fades more.

[Diana]

Thanks for visiting my blog with the dresden plates. I love what you're doing with your sunpainting experiments. Some very interesting projects. Also the graduates quilt is very nice, love that pattern myself.

[Lisa Thiessen]

I couldn't stand it any more - I had to try it, too! I've never sunprinted before, so it's all been very exciting. Thanks for the inspiration!
:)

[Francoise]

Your blue pieces are terrific! I hope it's sunny tomorrow so I can play too.
:-)

[Deb Hardman]

Very informative Vicki. Thanks! I never realised I could use Dynaflow for sunprinting! I have always used Setacolor for that, & I have bigger bottles of Dynaflow. If the sun ever comes back out, maybe I'll try it!

[Judy Rys]

Wow, I didn't realize that Dyn-a-flow would work as a sunprint. Great test, well documented.

[jackie]

Thanks for the information. I didn't know you could use it in that way. Now all we need is some sun!.

[Sally]

Thank you, this is so helpful. I hate it when you have to re-invent the wheel when playing with a something you've not used before.
Sally

[Glenda K.]

You can use pretty much any waterbased screenprinting pigment for sunprinting if you add water and a bit of binder.

Setacolour is very expensive and difficult to get here in South Africa and I use my screenprinting pigments
at a bout a tenth of the price.

[Karen]

Why do you say that heat setting with an iron is necessary, and that the dryer did nothing? I see some washout on the no iron samples, but it isn't as though much of the color has gone. Is it that the color from the not ironed pieces still runs?
Karen