I ordered some Lumi Inkodye the other week. You know, that permanent fabric ink that sets in 8mins in the sunshine! It arrived today and I did a couple of test prints...
They were fairly successful, but not totally. Here's what I learnt:
-They are about 6-8" wide which is a bit too small I think. Fabric isn't great for sharp detail, so the bigger the better. A4 next time!
-The images are fairly complicated. I increased the contrast before printing the negatives but a simpler bolder image would work better.
-PIN DOWN NEGATIVE. With the 2nd one the negative lifted at the bottom corners, so sunlight got in and all detail was lost in the bottom half of the image. DOH.
-I need to be better at washing. After they set in the sun you're supposed to wash them, get all excess ink off. I did that. But with the first one I noticed the white areas carried on developing and getting more blue... the contrast was lost. This is because I didn't get all the ink off when I washed it, and then i put it out in the sun to dry. DOH.
DEVELOPING IN SUN:
![Image](http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/107/lumi2.jpg)
PRINT 1:
![Image](http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/107/lumi4.jpg)
PRINT 2:
![Image](http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/107/lumi9.jpg)
Still look cool in my opinion. Can't wait to try my own designs/photos. Maybe some t-shirts are in order.