Embossing and Debossing
After seeing John Clemens from printmaking he basically said it wasn’t going to work. There was too much sponge and bounce back within the neoprene for it to keep shape.
He spoke about embossing another material and then attaching that to the neoprene.
Another thing was etching into the material, however being weary of the fumes that it might produce from that. I know Gemma you have already looked into this and it has worked quite effectively. Another way of doing this was possibly just etching in through the top layer of the material or half way through the material as well.
He seemed quite positive around printing on the material. And he would be more than happy to help us create a screen - this would need to be quite simple and would recommend a single colour (possibly could look at this for a logo).
We can do test prints with the paints already available there. We will just need to test how it will work with the press - as it is spongey when it’s pressed down from the pressure of the press does it expand slightly and when it comes out of the press will the design be in anyway distorted?
Printing on black - might be possible but may be a tricky process. He would recommend getting a white opaque fabric paste or something from textiles. He said they have it, which we would print on the black then with the same design and a different colour of ink would print directly over the top. The tricky part of this would making sure the registration of the two inks is perfect.
Printing on the neoprene is pretty much a no go, ink doesn’t like to stick to it at all.
We gave embossing a go, so try debating rather than embossing. Probably produced a better result for testing. It did techincally work.
First go - 15/2 setting, 3mm MDF letter
Second - 10/2 setting (increase in pressure), 3mm MDF letter
Third - 5/2 setting (increase in pressure), 3mm MDF letter
They were pretty successful. It did come up with a darkened line around the letter that I didn’t think was shadowing. We tried to put newsprint in case there was any ink or colour or transfer from the MDF plate that was used but the results was the same. So I assume it’s just the way the material responds to the stress. - this has now disappeared a day later.
I will see how it goes over the next while and see if any of the prints stay. My assumption is that they will mostly flatten out but we may be left with very subtle pattern. Intricate patterning just won’t work but if its simple lines or anything it’ll be fine.
Far right is 5/2 pressure, then 10/2 and then 5/2. Photos are a day on so it seems to hold shape
How it has come through on the other side, on the two stronger settings.
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