# Translucent plastisol transfers on colored shirts



## ctalley5 (Dec 28, 2010)

Hello Everybody! 

I'm curious what you all think is the best way to heat press a plastisol transfer of something I am going to try...
Overlapping translucent items. 

Imagine a blue shirt... then a white ink with transparency that essentially will show like a cloudy, light blue. Then if you overlap that with another item of the same "color"... that overlapping area will just get just a little more opaque.

What I'm after is doing something similar to this image below... and being able to use the same transfers on a wide variety of colored shirts. This is why I would rather do it with a transparency than just a typical 2-tone image with shades of light blue/red/etc. 

I can't figure out how to post images... so here is a link to an example image:

ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting


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## ctalley5 (Dec 28, 2010)

Well hold up - maybe this will attach the image...


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## HMD10 (Feb 17, 2008)

I think your best bet is to screen print this image...Use a high mesh and some reducer...That's how i would do it...I did somthing similar today... but no overlap Picasa Web Albums - Jamie McCready


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2010)

We haven't done this yet, but I will give it a shot. I printed some "translucent" transfers and pressed them today. I'll have to run them through the washer/dryer several times to test durability.... 

This looks like a neat idea that could be used to produce drop shadows and accents as well.


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## ctalley5 (Dec 28, 2010)

Thanks for the replies, guys!

If I were to screen print it - I would probably have to do it water based. This would be the wrong "thread" to ask this in I suppose... but from what I understand, 10% is the highest you are supposed to reduce water based inks. I'm not sure that would give it enough transparency... has anybody gone beyond recommendations and done a 50% reduction before?

Jared - thanks for testing it out! I'm new and trying to decide what route to start. I am trying to decide to buy a heat press first (& go the plastisol transfer route) or go for some simple screening supplies (water based - air/iron dry until I can save more $). I spoke with a company about the plastisol idea w/reducer... and it seemed like nobody had actually been asked to do something like this before??? Not sure I would even be able to get the transfers I would want!!!

Thanks again everybody for the direction


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## El Kabalyero (Mar 1, 2010)

Try using discharge inks.. High mesh on the text and low mesh count for the graphics that will overlap the text..


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