Our printing process is called screen printing. It is an old craft method that has many advantages. One of them is that we can make really large pattern reports, 136 cm wide and a whopping 120 cm high. The sharpness we get in the pattern can rarely be reproduced digitally and it is certainly an extra nice feeling with something that is made by hand.
We work with water-based pigment colors, they do not contain anything on the REACH restriction list, they are approved for both the EU flower, Ökotex Baby and the Swan.
We do not use solvents or extra washing when printing, instead our fabrics are heat-fixed to become washable. We control our production so that it leaves as few traces as possible. We generate extremely little waste. Something we are very proud of.
SCREEN PRINTING
- THIS IS HOW IT WORKS
Our fabrics are printed by hand using screen printing. The method requires great knowledge and craftsmanship. Everything is done manually and even the colors are mixed by hand. During the process, two experienced print masters work along the printing table to push the ink through the screen cloth and constantly adjust the frame and make sure the reports match and that the ink ends up where it is intended.
Screen printing is a technique based on the fact that paint, with the help of a squeegee, is pressed through a thin nylon fabric that is fastened in a frame. The fabric of the frame is covered in the parts that should not allow color to pass through to the fabric under the frame. The frames are made by applying a light-sensitive emulsion to the frames which are then allowed to dry, then the frame is placed over a transparent film where the pattern you want to print is black. The entire frame is then illuminated with UV light so that the parts that are not to be printed are hardened and the parts that are not hit by the light can be washed out and create an opportunity for the color to penetrate only where the pattern should be. A frame is needed for each color.
The colors are printed one by one in every second report, so that the color has time to dry before starting again, after two prints a color is finished, then the process starts over for the next color and so on. Two people are needed, one on each side of the frame, to move the squeegee over the screen cloth and press the paint down onto the fabric. When you have finished printing, it is time to heat-fix the colors. No washing of the fabric is required in our process, which saves a lot of water compared to other techniques. Before delivery, the fabric is manually quality checked one last time.
The colors we use are water-based pigment colors that we mix by hand to the right shade, we can also mix the colors based on color codes using a computerized system. Based on a color sample, our print masters can blend to an exact match.