Happy New Year! In my first social media post for 2023, I mentioned broadening my crafting skills with sublimation. I know that left some of you wondering what the heck I'm talking about so here's a little blog about sublimation and how I plan to incorporate it at Sign Hog.
Sublimation is a process in which a substance (in this case, sublimation ink) transitions from a solid (ink) to a gas with the application of heat. This allows the ink to infuse with the substrate/material, such as polyester, wood and acrylic.
What does this mean for Sign Hog customers?
This new service is a more cost-effective option for apparel and other items with multi-colored designs or realistic images.
Previous to offering sublimation, I was limited to the designs I could put on apparel because I was using heat transfer vinyl (HTV). This process means cutting out vinyl for each color in a design and layering them to complete a multi-color design - it wasn't conducive to real photographs/realistic images. With sublimation this limitation is gone, I just print a picture and press!
Sublimation ink has a longer lifespan compared to Vinyl and is directly infused into the material. No more peeling or weird wrinkling if you forget to flat-dry your clothing. The finished product is as smooth as the material used.
What types of sublimated products will be offered?
Signs, of course - both wood & acrylic - in addition to clothing and eventually, tumblers.