Morning all,
I've been registered on the forum for a while but this is my first post...
I thought I might as well share some of my experiences of sublimating mugs for the last couple of months...
I invested in a mug starter kit from Dyesub supplies back in August having been previously outsourcing my mug printing for a couple of years. I was just after a little more control on colours - and ultimately a bit more profit...
It's going pretty well - but as per many of the posts I've read on this forum (which was a great resource for me when setting up) there is a lot of trial and error involved.
I solely print my own artwork onto mugs - these are full colour illustrations created in Photoshop.
I am using a Freesub dual mug press, Ricoh 3110 with sublisplash inks.
I initially used the Dyesub supplies mugs, then got a few boxes from another supplier. Not a great deal of difference although I'd say the other suppliers mugs have a more obvious taper to the top - which can be problematic when wrapping the mug - resulting in a bit of banding/fading at the bottom. I've just ordered my latest batch from Listawood on recommendation of the forum - so fingers crossed for a good result...
I have pressed for the recommended 180secs at 180 degrees - lately my press has been a bit erratic and the temp seems to have started suddenly jumping up 20 or 30 degrees - resulting in over cooked mugs. An intermittent fault seemingly... (hopefully)
My main issue when pressing is with blues - all other colours come out great - blacks are spot on, red is really vibrant and skin tones come out nicely, but when I have dark blue it comes out almost grey/brown and is incredibly frustrating and has led to a fair bit of wastage... Slight improvements have come from upgrading my OS on Mac to enable me to print directly from Photoshop CC - previously the ICC profile from Dye Sub supplies wouldn't work in CS4 - I then experimented with printing from a CMYK for artwork where the blue is prominent - and this seems to have improved its bit more, as has reducing the time, temperature and pressure.
Overall - i've found it an interesting and largely rewarding process - with some big chunks of frustration thrown in. But I'd just like to say thanks for all the input from this forum - its a great resource.
Sorry for the long post!
Dave