Green Options » screen printing

Fab Fabrics: Organic Terry Cloth

Becky Striepe — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:00:43 +0000

[Creative Commons photo by Lindsey T]

We’ve talked about organic cotton’s merits before. Conventional cotton uses all sorts of nasty pesticides when it’s grown and chemicals and dyes in its production. Organic is just better for you and for the planet. You can imagine how pumped I was to stumble upon this 100% organic cotton terry cloth from Hart’s Fabric!

My first thought when I ran across this was, of course, to make dish towels, so I did a little searching and found some great inspiration. Check out the terry cloth eye candy!

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Greening Print Marketing: T-Shirt Printer Replaces Plastisol Inks With Green Alternative

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:52:32 +0000

Screen printing? Green? Are you out of your mind? California entrepreneurs Peter Imai and David Whitaker don’t think so.

Ecoprintworks.com is a t-shirt and tote bag printer that has gone green. Instead of printing using the traditional Plastisol inks (or PVC — polyvinyl chloride) plastic-based inks, the shop uses a 100% water-based, solvent-free ink out of Australia called Permaset Aqua.

Peter Imai and David Whitaker claim additional benefits, as well — namely, the ink is more durable and soft to the touch than PVC-based ink.

The switch from Plastisol inks wasn’t easy. While the shop was able to locate water-based alternatives, according to the company’s website, the production was “finicky” and color opacity was “underwhelming to say the least.” Furthermore, most contained significant amounts of distillates, which Ecoprintworks says negate some of their supposed environmental benefits.

Now, the co-owners are thrilled with the results—both the performance of the inks and their environmental friendliness. After all, when you’re offering customers a fabric choice of hemp, bamboo, and organic cotton, what else would you use?

Like this post? View all my “Greening Print Marketing” posts.

Ink and Spindle Eco-friendly Fabric and Yardage Printing

Jackie Hernandez — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:42:54 +0000

The designers behind Kirin & Co. (Lara Cameron) and Hollabee (Bianca van Meeuwen), along with friend Tegan Rose, have joined forces to create Ink & Spindle. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Ink & Spindle is a yardage screen printing business, with an environmentally friendly focus. Lara, Bianca, and Tegan are a powerhouse of designers each with their own unique style, yet somehow all of their prints go together. They share their journey with us through the Ink & Spindle Blog.

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Lotta Fabrics, Inspiration, and Surface Printing Workshops

Jackie Hernandez — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:31:55 +0000

Lotta Jansdotter is the label for Lotta Anderson’s amazing fabric designs and creations. ”Dotter” means daughter and “Jan” is the name of Lotta’s father. Lotta grew up in Åland, an island between Sweden and Finland, which has been a great source of inspiration for her Scandanavian designs.

Lotta Fabrics

There is a small selection of wonderful, modern fabrics at Lotta Jansdotter. The fabrics are screen-printed on 100% linen. Linen fabric is made from flax fiber which is naturally grown without the use of harmful pesticides. Fabrics are sold by the half yard for $22. There are also linen remnant bags available with 4-5 remnant pieces each featuring a different design. Both the fabric yardage and remnant bags would be prefect for small sewing projects (try making your own fabric cuffs). Just look at Lotta’s bags and home accessories for inspiration.

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Screen Print Your Own Eco-friendly Fabric

Jackie Hernandez — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:20:02 +0000

The beautiful textiles made by the likes of Kirin & Co., Pippijoe, and Mod Green Pod are inspiring and beautiful, but they carry a designer price tag. If you can’t afford designer hand-printed fabrics, consider screen printing your own. By printing your own fabric you can control the materials used, the design, and colors.

Learn to Screen Print

I recommend reading up on screen printing before you get started. While most hand printing methods seem overwhelming to a beginner, they are all quite easy to perfect with a little patience and practice. I highly recommend reading Lotta Prints by Lotta Jansdotter and Printing By Hand by Lena Corwin. Both of these books provide a thorough overview and how-to for each of the hand-printing methods. Each book also includes a few patterns from the author. Anna Laura, of the blog Anna Laura Art, shares a wonderfully detailed how-to for screen-printing with drawing fluid and screen filler.

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Fabulous Fabrics: Organic Linen from Thea and Sami (Australia)

Skye Kilaen — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:25:40 +0000

Thea and Sami is based in Brisbane, Australia, creating fashions and accessories out of natural materials and earth-friendly inks. They have begun adding some certified organic fabrics to their collection, including this handprinted “Iron Flowers” design in turquoise on white or grey on black on organic linen. The fabric is 142 cm wide (56″) and costs $A38.50 per metre.

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