Color Laser Gel Transfers - Process Thread

[ripper1331]

I recently got a color laser printer and started messing around with these again and recieved a few questions about how to do it so here is a process thread on how its all done.

Special thanks to Paul Fujita who showed me how to do this in 02, I changed the medium around a little but his original process thread is located here: Acrylic gel medium transfers, gel medium transfers, etc

Here is everything I'm using:

Color Laser Printer - http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Color-...9064539&sr=1-2

Transparencies

I know that these are for ink jet printers and not laser printers - they shipped the wrong ones but they work fine, just don't do more than 2 a time without letting the printer cool down for a few minutes or you will be making Shrinky Dinks.

Gel Medium

I'm sure this will work with Matte Medium also but this is what I had on hand and give the finished piece a dusting with some Krylon Matte Finish spray and all the gloss goes away.

Wood

I'm just using some old slats from a futon here and cutting them into pieces roughly 3.5"x5" although you can go with any size you want. I primed the wood with some flat bright white house paint and gave them a light sanding before starting.

This will work with any color but the color you paint the base is the color that the "white" part of the image will be, so if you want baby blue to be the "white" go for it but just take into account how that will affect the other colors.

Alright lets make something.

Get your image(s) ready.

These were from a bunch of cell phone wallpapers I made a year ago. I liked some of them but the files were too small to do much with and I really didn't want to burn dozens of screens to print a one off image. Also make sure you flip the image horizontal before printing so that any text will be transferred going in the right direction.

I layed them out so I could get 3 to a page.

Run a few test prints to check the color.

I cranked the contrast up to get the printer version closer to the screen version.

Print the images on the transparency and cut to shape.


If you want to see what it will look like when done just place it on some white paper, or over the color you are using as the base.

You can see that the white background helps all the colors to pop. You will be transferring the non-glossy side of the image.

Repeat the printing and the cutting.

[ripper1331]

Now take a small amount of the Gel medium and put it on the wood.


I like to use cheap foam brushes to spread it out to make a thin but constant layer of gel.


Place your transparency in the desired position.

This is way easier when using a transparency over the paper method. You should also do this quickly - too much messing around and you will start to smear the image.
Also note that you are using the backside of the transparency, the side facing up will be all glossy, the side you want to transfer will be matte.

Use the bottom of the Gel bottle as a burin to smooth out the image.

Any excess Gel Medium will come out the sides at this point so having some wax paper or other surface that it won't stick to will help with clean up later.

Repeat.


Add some weight.

The books just help keep everything flat and such but the transparencies tend to stick uniformly so it's an optional step.


Now we get to the tricky bit - drying time.
This varies depending on pretty much everything from the brand of transparencies to the type of wood (solid oak takes way longer but this is old pine) but with the things I'm using here the initial drying time was about 2 hours.

Initial drying time

These averaged about 2 hours to get to the state above but as you can see there are some areas that didn't transfer well. I found that the black took longer than the rest of the colors but if I left it too long, say overnight, the hardening of the gel would start to pull the white paint off the wood. Almost everything is fixable so lets get to that part.

This is looking like crap.

The big advantage to the transparencies is that you can fix the image if parts of it didn't transfer.

Peel back the transparency but leave it attached at one end for easier registration when we fix it.

Fixing things

Add another small amount of gel medium and coat the surface again, you can also just coat the areas that you want to fix.

Flip the transparency back and make sure it's all lined up.

Repeat the burin step.

Smooth it out again and let it sit for another hour or 2 before testing it again.

[ripper1331]

In true process thread fashion I didn't take another pic of this piece until later when it was glued to the final block but here you can see that the image is pretty much fixed.


After removing the transparencies and fixing the ones that needed to be fixed you are pretty much done


I trimmed the excess gell off the sides with a knife, this is much easier to do before it fully sets up, and sanded the edges of everything down.

Then I started playing around with the blocks until I found a grouping I liked. I then glued them all down to another board and it's done.


You can see that you won't get 100% perfect transfer of the image, well you could but I like it to look a little rough, but it works pretty well, its non-toxic, so easy a kid could do it and it's an easy clean up.

The total cost for all the supplies, including the printer, was around $200 and that should make you about 100+ of these little ones.

If you make some post them up here as I would love to see what you do with it.

[caribou]

awesome thread!

[ben swift]

thumbs up!

[ferg2001]

going to try

[ripper1331]

I should add that you want to flip the image horizontal before printing and that you want to use the dull side of the image for the transfer.

[Unitus]

anything with text you'd have to print in reverse, yes? I'd imagine you're putting "print side down" onto the gel, so that would invert any text.

I'm gonna try this.

[Unitus]

I should add that you want to flip the image horizontal before printing and that you want to use the dull side of the image for the transfer.

Beat me to it.

[SkatRadioh]

Excellent, these are great! The color retains vibrancy really well. Didn't think about this, thanks. I've had experience with this process, but using paper instead of transparencies. After it dries to the surface you just wet and rub off the paper. It keeps some of the paper and can make the color a bit more worn.