About Our Fabric Production Process
March 2008 New and Improved Process
We are proud to announce a new and improved production process. Most of our fabric is now printed with archival, UltraChrome K3 Inks making stoles and other fabrics easier to care for. Though I wouldn't treat them like some old T-shirt, many of the stoles can now be hand washed in cold water, without fading. (The "remember your first washing your blue jeans" caution is now GONE for most of the stoles. Some of the more electric colors must still be printed the "old" way.)
This is a professional photo printer, the Epson 7880, that will print huge panoramas. In this case I'm printing my own art on fabric. More about the stoles is here: http://www.artfromthesoul.com/Banners.html
This printer offers superior smoothness in printing and superior saturation and coverage.
The paper/fabric is indeed special too. It is paper backed cotton broadcloth. Print and then pull the paper off and there is your fabric. (Of course you have to create the artwork first!) Lots of research and investment went into getting to this point in my production process along with special gear including a LaCie 321 monitor with a calorimeter and professional printer/monitor color matching done via a spectrometer. Not recommended for the faint of heart.
You can see from the height of the desk that this is a big girl too. Extra care is taken with it and it has its own dedicated UPS with line filter for clean power without glitches from the local power company.
One of the things we have discovered is that even with the most sophisticated equipment that the fabric we print on must be pristine. There cannot be a bump in the fabric nor can a thread be out of place. A single raised thread or even a loose thread is a nightmare so with each piece of fabric we inspect it, brush it, clip threads and then inspect it twice more.
Custom stoles rolling off the presses for a community choir, Sine Nomine, in Colorado.
We even have a backup system.!
Art from the Soul TM
