# Heat pressing on painted canvas



## SWilson

I normally do heat press vinyl t shirts but I recently had a customer ask me if I could heat press on a canvas that she had put her sons foot prints on with acrylic paint. Has anyone ever attempted any such thing? I am wondering if the heat press will damage the paint or ruin the canvas in any way?


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## john221us

SWilson said:


> I normally do heat press vinyl t shirts but I recently had a customer ask me if I could heat press on a canvas that she had put her sons foot prints on with acrylic paint. Has anyone ever attempted any such thing? I am wondering if the heat press will damage the paint or ruin the canvas in any way?


We have an art studio and do it the other way. We print on canvas and then paint over that. Heat pressing to stretched canvas has been challenging. I have had to get some silicon foam to put between the frame and the canvas then a piece of wood under that between the frame. Even with that, we don't get completely even pressure and the image comes up around the edges. On canvas panels, it works pretty well. There is a coating on the canvas, so I have had to extend the press time. I have not tried pressing on an already painted canvas, though.


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## SWilson

john221us said:


> We have an art studio and do it the other way. We print on canvas and then paint over that. Heat pressing to stretched canvas has been challenging. I have had to get some silicon foam to put between the frame and the canvas then a piece of wood under that between the frame. Even with that, we don't get completely even pressure and the image comes up around the edges. On canvas panels, it works pretty well. There is a coating on the canvas, so I have had to extend the press time. I have not tried pressing on an already painted canvas, though.


Thank you for the info. She had already done the footprints when she contacted me. I was thinking if I put a piece of wood inside the frame to make it all level that it would work. I was more worried about what the heat would do to the acrylic paint. Now I'm nervous to try it, I don't want to ruin it for her. :/ lol


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## john221us

When I was working through it, I posted my results to this thread:
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/plastisol-transfers/t176601-2.html

Stretched canvas has a bevel/bead on the outside of the frame, so the canvas actually hovers about an 1/8" above the frame. You need to stick something in there to allow pressure against the canvas. I started out using strips of neoprene, but that created seams between where the wood insert came up and the neoprene. Wormil suggested I use a full sheet of neoprene and place the wood under that (you can shim up the frame, if your wood is too thick). This worked better, but I then found that the neoprene shrinks with use (significantly). I ended up getting silicon foam, instead of neoprene. If the wood is not shimmed just right, though, you will still end up with uneven pressure and you will have the picture peel up on you in places. Be prepared to burn through some canvases to get it dialed in (they will need to be the exact brand and model of canvas). Even then, canvases can have manufacturing differences. Fortunately, for most of what we do, it is used as a guide for painting on top of that, so typically we can just sand down the peeling on the edges and our customers don't mind. You will probably need a swinger heat press, in order to accommodate the thickness of the canvases. Most clams don't get wide enough.

If you can talk her into starting over, and also talk her into using canvas panels, instead of stretched canvas, you will have much better success.


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## janeyummy

do a little test before printing, using to extra cloth to try a higher temperature of the heat transfer machine. Then use the tested temperature for actually apply.


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## splathead

Why is there a need to heat press an acrylic painting?


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## john221us

splathead said:


> Why is there a need to heat press an acrylic painting?


It sounds like a one off, where a lady already had added the footprints to the canvas and wanted to print something on top or around them. From that perspective, it probably isn't worth doing. I included the additional detail for future readers who may want to print to already stretched canvas or if the OP had the opportunity to convince the lady to start over and print the canvas first and then add the paint. We did some canvas panels (not stretched canvas) and that turned out much better and was way easier to do. I might push for that for our future classes, but people really like stretched canvas.


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