OUGD504 - Design for Print: Foiling and Flocking

This morning I decided to try foiling and flocking, as foiling is the top answer on my survey for what people want to learn more about. Although it was quite an easy process, it is a very time-consuming one.

I bought two types of foil, platinum and purple, and a burgundy colour flock. I also bought some glue because this is what the foil and flock sticks to. 
These are the colour options you can buy from the shop, and I decided a metallic colour would be good to use because it is what you usually associate foiling with and I thought platinum was a good alternative to gold. I also wanted to use a bright colour to see how that looked on different stocks, so I picked purple as it looked quite subtle. 

First I had to expose a fabric screen, as this works with the glue better than paper screens. Once I had done that I was ready to start the foiling and flocking process.

Things I Needed:

• Fabric Screen
• Portable screen bed
• Squeegee
• Glue
• Foil
• Flock
• Heat Press
• Stock

I decided to do foiling first because the heat press needs different temperatures for flocking and this was the lower heat, at 160 degrees. Firstly I turned the heat press on as it takes a while to heat up, so I set it at 160 degrees and 12 seconds. 

Then while that heated up I screenprinted the glue onto my stock, and ran through it several times to make sure that it stuck on. I had to clean the screen immediately after because it dries really quickly and this ruins screens. 

I then brought the foil and stock to the heat press area, and placed the foil face up onto the stock. I then placed it between packing (newsprint) so that the press wouldn't stick directly onto it. Then I pulled the little button out, clamped it down and the countdown started.

When the time was up, I waited a few seconds for it to cool down, and took the stock and foil out. You can clearly see where the foil has stuck down as there was an outline of the design visible.

After a couple of minutes I started to peel off the foil. This is the rewarding feeling, as it is such a long process up to this point and to see it working makes it all worth it. 

The foil is transparent where it has printed onto the glue as it has transferred to the stock.

I tried it on different stocks and this is the final result:

To do the flocking, it is the exact same process except a higher temperature on the heat press at 170 degrees, and it presses for 20 seconds rather than 12. 

Also, with foil it is placed face up, but when you use flock it has to be faced down onto the stock. It goes between packing in the heat press.

When the time is up, I waited for a couple minutes until it had cooled down. When I peeled it back it was a good result like the foiling, but one thing it does it leave a embossed outline where the edge of the flock ends. This is probably due to the pressure of the heat press pressing down onto the stock.

You can see the detail here and the embossed outline, and it has worked well with large text. However, it wouldn't work well with small type and I think this is because it would bleed due to the material.

Here is the final print!

Although it is initially a long process, it is an easy one and the finish is rewarding. I want to include this in my info pack because it is a technique most students want to learn, but don't know where or how to do it, according to my survey.