Printing inside mugs/on the bottom

[kezza99]

I am wanting to print our logo on the bottom of a sublimation mug and possibly inside. Has anyone done this and if so how.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

[Justin]

It's been discussed a few times on the forum. Generally mugs aren't coated on the inside and the coverage on the bottom can be hit and miss making it impossible to sublimate successfully. In theory printing the bottom is possible, inside a little harder

There are other options, stamps, pad printing etc. but I think most folk tend to think the cost outweighs the advantage and increased sale price.

[kezza99]

Thanks Justin. Yes, I thought about pad printing, but looked a little pricey the last time I looked.

What stamps do you mean for not coming off the mugs?

[Justin]

Someone had a go with a stamp filled with sublimation inks, it would still need 'cooking' though

[James990]

Didn't someone have some stickers that were didhwasher proof, or at least stayed on for a long time?

[pisquee]

Chongsta produces stickers for a number of forum users, which are printed on clear outdoor vinyl - they work very well, and do stay stuck to the mug going through the dishwasher - in fact we've recently talked a friend who bought some of our mugs, over a year ago, where the mugs are in daily use, and probably in the washer every day, and the stickers are still on, but it's the ink that has washed off first, but even then, it stayed on nearly the year!
We are currently in talks with a supplier to get our logo work printed onto batches of mugs before they're shipped into UK, but there's a few details to work through first (pricing, turnaround times, moq - which at the moment all look fine but I want to double check and have no nasty surprises!) but certainly until then we'll keep with Chongsta.

[Justin]

I put stickers on for a couple of customers and they do work very well. getting the mugs printed first would be good but not cheap I wouldnt have thought?

[James990]

When I was at fespa l think Becki from Listawood said that they do it, but you have to pay a set up fee, then the cost of printing on each mug.

[pisquee]

To add, that we did try using a custom made stamp, and permanent ink, but with the curvature of under the mug, it was almost impossible to get a good result, and so we quiakly gave up, as it seemed silly to be wasting mugs because of a mis-printed stamp.

I only looked at the figures quickly for getting the prints on the base, and I can't remember if it was around the same as getting Chongsta's labels, or a little bit more. This is per batch of 1008 mugs. But even, for a little more, we'll have a product which appears more professional, which is something we need for wholesaling into shops, but also takes one more stage of production out of producing mugs (i.e. we don't have to peel off the labels and stick them to the mugs.)

[Ali P]

Hi Kerry, If it is any help, I contacted Dave Harvey at "Frizbee" as they do vinyl stickers for the bases of mugs - I found him on an archived thread, but you can find contact details on Frizbee's website. They are sold per metre of vinyl and the number of stickers depends on their finished size. I can't comment on their suitability as I am still waiting for mine to arrive
Ali