ImagesMagUK_January_2021

www.images-magazine.com JANUARY 2021 images 25 KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES Mark Gervais of Ningbo Shenzhou Knitting Company explains how he used puff ink to create the award-winning Stone Carved Dragon and Phoenix print Anatomy of a print The separations were built layer by layer, with careful thought going into which layers would be represented at the highest level and progressing downwards to the lower levels. The highest levels have five layers of puff ink – varying the number of layers of puff ink created the visual and multi-dimensional depth. The transitions between layers and colours needed to appear seamless and continuous. As for creating the actual separations, Mark says he is still trying to figure out how ‘The Sorcerer’, aka Michel Caza, works his magic! Mark used 62T mesh, 55 micron thread for the base and 53T mesh, 55 micron thread for the puff ink screens. The screens were coated to achieve 25% EOM (emulsion over mesh) with Murakami AC30 emulsion. Six screens were required to achieve this effect: one screen was for a base to create a foundation for the puff ink to sit on, and the remaining five screens were for the puff inks. The water-based puff inks were from Unikasei, a Japanese manufacturer, as was the base ink. Pigments were mixed into the puff base ink to achieve the Pantone colour story of 497U, 437U, 480U, 482U and 482+white. 497U was printed twice: first as a regular flat ink under the entire image to act as a foundation to help minimise the puckering effect that can be caused by using puff inks. 497U was then printed again, this time as the first of the five puff inks for the main portion of the design. Since five layers of water-based puff were present in many areas, pre-drying (dehydration) of the print at 60°C for one hour in a custom-manufactured drying room, with temperature and humidity monitoring controls, was required to evacuate the water from the ink. Otherwise, during the curing, the water would vaporise and cause eruptions in the surface of the ink. The reason behind choosing the 53T mesh for the puff was due to the particle size in the puff ink. A finer mesh would have prevented an adequate amount of ‘puff effect’ from occurring. As a result, the screens were imaged, computer to screen, at 45dpi at a 22.5° angle. The inks were printed on a RoqPrint Oval Pro from darkest to lightest, with two strokes per layer using a 60 shore squeegee, drying each layer in between printing. After dehydration, the print was cured for 90 seconds at 140°C in a RoqTunnel gas dryer. T he level of competition at the annual Fespa Awards is always high. Mark Gervais, director of screen print at Ningbo Shenzhou Knitting Company in China, knew that the company’s entry in the Special Effects on T-Shirts category of the 2020 awards would have to be ambitious and unique in order to both top its 2019 submission and receive an award from Fespa’s panel of judges. “I’ve always thought puff ink, used in the correct applications, can create spectacular effects,” says Mark. “I then recalled a photo I had taken of an ancient stone carved window of a phoenix and dragon while on an art expedition with my son’s art class. The idea was born!” He shared his idea and the five-level puff print technique with his “good friend, mentor and world-renowned screen print artist”, Michel Caza, to get his input. “Much to my surprise, not only did he think it was a great concept, he had already prepared the initial set of separations required to begin,” Mark explains. “I was off and running to get screens made and inks mixed to begin the magical creation process. After a few rounds of strike-offs, and some minor adjustments to the separations, we had produced something very special.” So special, in fact, that the multi-level, 3D, stone-carved Chinese window pattern with subtle changes in colour, was awarded silver by Fespa.