Colour For Textiles – Pigment – CraftHub European Project

Properties & Qualities

Application

Art Furnishing Sample making

Qualities

2D Colourful Flexible

Colour

Blue Red Yellow

Sample Information

Date of Creation

April 5th, 2023

Culture & Context

Printing with pigment pastes is an accessible way to start printing on fabric as the finishing/curing process is simple. To get the colour right you want can be difficult with premixed pastes so it is best to mix your own.

Process & Production

Work out what colours are needed to make your colour. Here I am making an olive green. I will need yellow and blue but also red (its opposite colour on the colour wheel). The red is used in order to take the vividness down without making it dull.Measure out the binder into a plastic container, then weigh. Add in your colours one at a time, mixing well as you go. Test colour on fabric to see the true colour, using a spatula or small squeegee to scrape a thin layer onto the fabric. Once colour is achieved, reweigh. If the additional amount of the pigment is significantly more than 50g Pigment in 950g Binder then add in more binder to suit. Then retest. This will help the handle of the print if the ratio is suitable.Make all your colours at the same time and test them together on a bit of fabric so that you can see the colour palette together to see if it works. Put your colours in a sealable (plastic works best) container. This will keep them fresher for longer. This example is from some samples testing out new motifs. The samples will be sewn into inorder to create interesting test pieces.

Recipe Details

Working with QPrint Pigment Colours and Magnaprint Binder FF (Spirit Free Binder)Max/Full colour binder to pigment ratio for colours is – 950g Binder to 50g PigmentMax/Full colour binder to pigment ratio for black or white is – 900g Binder to 100g PigmentThis will give you a colour of full strength. If you add in more of this binder to your colour it will become more translucent so when on light fabric it will make the print paste colour paler. I will often add in more binder instead of adding white. But play about with this to see what works best for the colour you wish to make. For the Olive Green I worked with – 500g Binder FF20g Pigment – Turquoise 4G (9g), Yellow 2G (7g), Golden Yellow RF (2g), Red BTL (2g)