Photo Inkjet Transfer Trials

So, I'm up a little earlier than usual, and hubby is still sleeping, and I should be installing the new router that the phone company sent us that's supposed to give us better internet within the next few weeks (fingers crossed), but I decided to share a new photo transfer technique that I tried yesterday.

I am sixty-nine years old and have a lot of old photographs myself, but I've recently inherited all of my parents old photographs, and there are so many of family and friends that I would love to use in my art that I've been looking for ways to transfer prints of them into my art projects.

There are numerous video tutorials on youtube, and I've watched several of them, and tried some of them on transferring magazine pages with a gelli plate, but I prefer using my own photos, and I have an inkjet printer. I know laser is better, but also more expensive, and the nearest place to me for laser photocopies is twenty-five miles away, so not too handy about spur of the moment photo projects, where I come across a photo and want to put it on a project immediately.

I found this technique on naysworld's youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hcWHzUwCKQ and gave it try. Thank you, naysworld, for sharing!

In the video she used a vinyl notebook divider, but I didn't have one of those, so I improvised. I first tried a soft vinyl sheet used to protect photographs taped to a printer sheet, but it wouldn't feed through the printer. Second try was a plastic folder cover taped to printer paper, but it wouldn't feed through either. Third try was freezer paper taped to printer paper, shiny side up, printer set to glossy photo paper. It went through! Trick, I learned, is to leave the printer paper a tad longer than the other surface, so the feeder can grab hold of it. I used masking tape to hold together. After the freezer paper, I tried the plastic folder cover again, leaving end of the printer paper a bit longer, and it fed right through! Yay!

   

This is an old B/W photo of me, my Granny P, and my doll, Susie, and is one of my favorite photos. I printed it onto the shiny side of freezer paper, in a 5" x 7" size, with a standard ink yield. I had to be really careful taking it out of the printer, turning it over, and laying it down on my journal page, because the ink was beaded up on the glossy paper. It's a journal with mixed media paper, so the image, after I laid it down and rubbed it on the back to transfer it, is a little grainier than I would have wanted, but I did it! Only problem with freezer paper is that it isn't transparent, so you can't see where to put your image. I was only practicing here on journal pages, so it didn't really matter, but if I want to do it on a gelli print, or something, where the image goes onto a specific area, it will matter. So, although, it worked, it will depend on the project as to whether I will use it or not.

I spritzed some water onto the ink leftover on the freezer paper and transferred it to the other page by rubbing. Then I remembered that naysworld said not to rub it, to just press on it. Too late! Anyway, it's interesting!

PS: My doll's face didn't transfer, because that's where I had masking tape to hold the papers together to print. It printed onto the masking tape, but then wouldn't transfer to my journal page. :/

Since I had only used half the sheet of freezer paper, I turned it around, set the printer to 4" x 6" with a high yield. on glossy paper, and moved the tape on the side so it wouldn't blot out my doll's face, and printed and transferred to the journal page. Better, but still grainier than I want. I also forgot to just press, and not rub, to transfer the leftover ink to the other page. I think I spritzed this one a bit too much, but it's still interesting.

After reasonable success with the freezer paper, I decided to try the vinyl folder cover again. I taped it to the printer paper, leaving about 1/4" of printer paper longer than the vinyl, and this time it fed right through! I made sure the tape edges were all down good before feeding, so the tape wouldn't get stuck in the printer roll and cause big problems. Painters tape might be better, but I didn't have any.

Anyway, again the ink was beaded up on the slick surface after printing, and I carefully removed the vinyl from the printer paper, laid it down on a gelli print that I had previously made, and wasn't too happy with, rubbed the back good, and pulled it up. This time, because the vinyl is transparent, I could see where to place the image. Perhaps, not the best background for it, but I like how it came out.

Again, I spritzed the leftover ink on the vinyl and transferred to a journal page. This time I remembered to press, not rub! I like it!

I used an old photo of my mom when she was about sixteen. Not happy with the gelli print background colors, but it's ok for practice purposes, and I do need more practice, but for now, I think I did ok with my experimental play, and it can still be used in a collage or something.

Since inkjet ink is not permanent, and will smear, especially if it gets wet, I sprayed all of these trials with an acrylic sealer to help protect them.

I had fun trying this technique. Still not quite what I wanted, but interesting, and worth knowing. Now to find a way to print on regular paper and transfer it. I'm wondering about glossy photo paper, only it's not transparent either. Hmmmmm....