Printing Equipment

In printing you used wooden blocks, stencils, engraved plates, rollers or even silk screens to put the colours onto fabric. Colorants that are used in printing contain thick dyes to stop the colour from spreading beyond the pattern or the design.

There are four traditional textiles printing styles which are:

-          Direct printing, in which colorants containing dyes, thickeners, and the mordant or substances necessary for fixing the colour on the cloth are printed in the desired pattern.

-          The printing of a mordant in the desired pattern prior to dyeing cloth; the colour adheres only where the mordant was printed.

-          Resist dyeing, in which a wax or other substance is printed on to fabric which is subsequently dyed. The waxed areas do not accept the dye, leaving uncoloured patterns against a colour ground.

-    Discharge printing, in which a bleaching agent is printed onto previously dyed fabrics to remove some or the entire colour.

This picture is of hand printing.....