Blog 7

 

For the finished product of our project, the main thing we printed on was mugs. Screen printing can only print in one color, so it was too limiting for the designs that we had in mind. However, printing on mugs was probably one of the more flexible mediums. The process for printing on mugs is actually pretty simple, we print out our designs on a special type of paper, we tape that paper to the mug, so the ink is facing the ceramic, and then we heat press the entire mug so the ink transfers onto it. This sounds easy in theory, but it is actually very frustrating to get correct. One of the issues we encountered – and we did not expect this to be an issue, was the printing paper itself. When we printed some designs, some of them got cut off, so we had to throw out any designs that didn’t get fully printed. The other hard part is making sure that you tape the design onto the mug so it’s parallel and exactly where you want it to be. This can be difficult because you’re not even looking at the design when you do it, you have to look at the rough outline from the other side of the paper. Additionally, you have to make sure that you don’t put any tape over where there’s ink because then the heat won’t be distributed as evenly to that area, and it might not fully print. The hardest part is once the mug finishes heating for about three minutes, you have to take it out IMMEDIATELY and get the paper off immediately too. Any longer than the planned amount of time, and the design could bleed or not print correctly. 

We encountered things like the designs were printing in a yellowish tint, they were being cut off at the top because of the lip of the mug, or we left the paper on for too long and the prints started looking blurry. We had to deal with so many issues while printing mugs, but we eventually got the hang of it. 

Mug printing device

 

Comments

  1. Rachel MullenMay 31, 2023 at 8:29 AM

    Libra, thank you for sharing the process that you used to put your original designs on these mugs! They look amazing! Even thought you mentioned it was frustrating to learn this process, I'm glad that you stuck with it to work through the challenges and try again. -Mrs. Mullen

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