Another "New - Not Hard" Thing

If you don't know who Kay LaFevre is, you need to go and check her out right now. Here is a link to her FaceBook page https://www.facebook.com/TheWoolGenie/  She is an absolutely brilliant rug hooker, whose work always takes my breath away.

A few years ago, when she was a guest speaker at Trent Rug Hooking School, she shared her passion for Sublimation Ink printing. That is how she prints her patterns. She brought her printer and her press with her for the demonstration, and also shared a simple way that we mere mortals could transfer patterns without all her equipment.

Someone in the Ottawa Olde Forge rug hooking Group has created a one-pager of how to do it. https://ottawarughooking.com/files/Resources/Transfer_pattern_to_backing.pdf

Not sure why it took me so long to try, but this week I did. I guess I am in my "brave girl era".

I went to Michaels craft store to see if they had sublimation markers and they did. They had two kinds. One is their brand, the other is Siser. 

I am using them to make two small patterns of my "geometric face" image. These will be teaching pieces for a fall workshop. I am doing one version in black and white/grey scale, and the other in a simple painterly sketch (using "cut out" effect from Photomania), which I will hook in skin tones. 

Here is the black and white effect, outlined with the Siser markers, ready to be ironed on. This sketch is also from the "cut out" effect, but I changed the colour to make the grey scale study. 

And here is what printed onto the backing - I think I could have used stronger lines, and probably kept the iron on a bit longer, but I certainly got what I needed to do the hooking.  Excuse the scary eyes - I forgot to outline them, so I drew them in with marker afterward. 

This is definitely an easier way to transfer a pattern. A bit of a learning curve. The other thing I forgot was that the image would be flipped on the backing. (Kay warns about that, especially for lettering.) This is my second attempt after I flipped the image to allow for that. It doesn't really matter, but the original larger portrait is oriented this way, so I thought it should match. 

Stay tuned for progress. I have begun to hook the skin tone one. They are only 8" square, so should be quick to do. 

Thanks Kay for sharing this great information. Not sure I will graduate to a sublimation ink printer, but will definitely do this going forward.