EXPERIMENTING WITH FOIL

Today I did a little experiment with FOIL and it turned out fantastic.  I am very excited with the results.  My previous understanding of foil is that you needed to use a very low mesh count screen, such as a 60 mesh screen.  Foil adhesive has granules in it and you need a low mesh count so the granules would be able to pass through the screen.  Using such a low mesh screen means you would lose detail in your image.  I have seen many detailed designs with foil and had wondered how they kept the detail in the image.

Last night I was on reading a post on Facebook which talked about using 110 mesh screens for foil. That really peeked my interest so today I thought I would try it.  I did not have any 110 screens coated with emulsion so I used a 156 mesh screen I already had burned.   This particular screen was coated with a 1 x 1 layer of emulsion.  The image on the screen had a distressed effect to it which made my experiment even more exciting.  :) 

A 2 x 1 coating would have been better because it would lay down a thicker coat of adhesive.  I did two or three pulls of the squeegee and flashed it for 7 seconds.  There was not a very thick layer of adhesive so I did not think it would turn out.  I heat pressed the foil for 15 seconds @ 325 degrees with my Hotronix MAXX heat press set to medium pressure.  It turned out great!  I noticed a few spots on the design that did not turn out but I think if I use a 110 mesh screen more adhesive will pass through the screen and I will be able to pick up all the detail. 

Here is a snap shot of part of the design.

It turned out fantastic even though I used a 156 mesh screen with a 1 x 1 coating of emulsion.  I even sent it through the washer and dryer and it held up great.  I am really excited to work on some foil designs.

Thanks for reading!
Jeanette