Sublimation . . . I resisted the siren song of sublimation for a long time, but I finally made the decision to give it a try. I’ve dabbled a bit using sublimation paper and pens, and I liked what I could do with those. It was just enough to that I got the bug to jump in fully, so now I have a sublimation printer and convection oven to expand what I can do.

First up was tumblers, and oh! What fun those are to design and make! I’m still in the experimentation and learning stage, but I’m very pleased with how the few I’ve done so far have come out. Once I’ve done a couple more that I have in mind, I will post pictures here and add them to the Etsy shop.

I have a number of different kinds of sublimation blanks to try out from a bundle I purchased, so I’ve also done a mousepad, coasters, kitchen towels, and ornaments. I’ve even sublimated onto a dollar store notebook! I doubt that I will do much sublimation on shirts, however, as I’m not a fan of wearing 100% polyester white shirts, which are the best for sublimation.

Sublimation is fascinating to me. It takes special ink on special paper, then it can permanently bond with polyester once you apply the right amount of heat and pressure. The ink turns into a gas and permeates the substrate (polyester or polyacrylic surface), so it lasts as long as the object it’s applied to lasts. While I love doing heat transfer vinyl on shirts, I know that it will eventually crack and fail. Vinyl sits on the surface and doesn’t bond to it like sublimation does.

There you go–my mini lesson sublimation!