Craft Informed Digital Textile Printing

Abstract

Due in part to ongoing developments in pigment ink production, the quantity of pigment-based digital textile prints is predicted to rise significantly over the next few years. Current dye-based inkjet printing requires the substrate to be coated with a chemical solution prior to printing, then fixed by steaming afterwards, meaning both processes have major environmental consequences. Although this forecast may reduce the impact of current dye-based textile inkjet printing (Fu, 2006), the move towards more digitally printed textiles will affect the character of fabrics from the perspectives of both designers and clients. However, as Bradley Quinn points out, this digital expansion also risks the loss of individuality, and challenges the nature and infrastructure of tomorrow’s textile industry on a global scale (Quinn, 2009). Against this backdrop of change, my practice-led research describes the outputs from a new process that has been developed at the Centre for Advanced Textiles (CAT), at the Glasgow School of Art. The technique enables designers to apply dye-based, rather than pigment-formed, digital images onto textiles without the need for preparing the fabric beforehand or fixing thereafter. Combining craft techniques with advanced technology from non-textile specific areas has enabled a process to be produced that allows traditional practices to be used as interventions in the digital printing of textiles in order to provide practitioners with new opportunities. By comparing the technique with existing digital textile printing processes, early tests have identified a number of benefits including: reduced capital outlay per print; lower energy consumption; and less chemical waste. As the designer or maker is able to physically engage with the process, a new aesthetic is produced that reflects the originality of the hand-skilled element of each print. While this new technique does not attempt to replace existing digital textile printing systems (for example that of the Mimaki TX2), it introduces an innovative alternative method for printing digital images onto fabrics. Due to the discrete nature of the system, this process has the potential to encourage the establishment of micro-businesses in outlying locations. With energy costs continuing to rise, it also offers a novel aesthetic at a low cost. This paper will explain how the new process differs from existing techniques used to manufacture digital textile prints, and outlines where the process may be used as a viable craft-based alternative for artists, designers and craftspersons in the face of an impending worldwide increase in the production of inkjet printed textiles.