ImagesMagUK_August_2021

www.images-magazine.com AUGUST 2021 images 89 TIPS & TECHNIQUES Once printed, you’ll see a flat, brownish colour on the printed areas. This is because the burn-out ink needs to be cured in order to begin properly dissolving the cellulosic fibre. The next step is to wash the garments to remove all excess ink and cellulosic fibre from your printed areas. We used a Miele domestic washing machine on a 50-minute wash cycle at 60°C and added an optical brightener-free washing powder. 7 10 It’s now time to send the garments down the dryer. We used an M&R Mini Sprint 2000 dryer at 130°C and cured the garment twice for two minutes each time. Depending on the size of your dryer you may need to adjust your process, but we recommend 130°C for four minutes in total. It’s important not to over-cure the garment as you may end up with some scorched areas that can be difficult to wash off, so it’s best to trial some prints beforehand. Once washed and dried, you’ll really be able to see the effect you’ve created on your fabrics. In these prints, the grey T-shirts with a higher cotton composition left behind a highly transparent burn-out effect, while the blue and red shirts with a more balanced composition left less transparency and more structure due to the higher polyester composition. 8 11 Once the prints have been cured, put them straight into cold water to allow some of the burn-out formulation to rinse off the garments. Be sure to handle the garments with protective gloves when removing them from the water. Top tip: we added 3% yellow Itosperse disperse dye to some of the burn-out ink for this print. When cured, the disperse dye enters the expanded polyester fibres and gets locked in when the garment cools down. This means that you can alter the colour of burn-out printed areas. The possibilities with this ink system are huge! 9 12 Watch the video clip