The Selectasine range of binders and pigments offer the textile artist a variety of options for screen printing and painting.
Puff Binder
This test shows how the Selectasine Puff Binder combined with Selectasine Pigment performs on finely woven cotton fabric.
The pigment colour Fiery Red was combined with the puff binder at approximately 1 part pigment to 20 parts binder. The concentrated pigments are supplied in a liquid state as “pigment in dispersion” (i.e. the pigment is still a solid, though minute, and has not been dissolved into the liquid), this makes them easy to stir into the binder. These pigments can be used to create screen ink, paint, and to colour pulp in hand paper making.
The pigment needs to be added to a binder if the solution is to used on fabric, paper, board or wood. The acrylic content of the binder makes a bond with fabric once the paint has dried and been fixed with heat (find out more about fixing/curing the paints). There are a choice of binders for creating different effects with the pigments.
The Selectasine Puff Binder inflates as heat is applied making the painted or printed item slightly raised on the surface.
The solution painted onto fabric, note that more
paint has been applied to the top circle.
Allow the solution to dry thoroughly. Sandwich between two sheets of cotton before ironing on the reverse of the print. The iron needs to be very hot and the steam switched off.
The solution has puffed up.
Results
The puffed solution gives a slightly matt finish and the colour has dulled slightly. The top circle shows the potential for the binder to puff up quite substantially. Applying the ‘ink’ through a screen will make the coverage more even and subsequent layers can be printed on top before fixing.
The fabric puckers slightly beneath the puffed solution. The more solution that is applied, the more the fabric will pucker from beneath. This offers exciting opportunities for creating dimpled and textured fabric.
If you would like to try out the Selectasine Puff Binder at home, please browse through the Screen Printing section of our website.
