Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil to receive a desired image. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A fill blade or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink into the mesh openings for transfer by capillary action during the squeegee stroke. Basically, it is the process of using a stencil to apply ink onto another material whether it be t-shirts, posters, stickers, vinyl, wood, or any material that can keep the image onto its surface.
Transfer printing is a particularly English form of ceramic decoration. Although printing on paper existed for centuries, it was the enterprising English engraver and printer who saw its potential as a means of decorating the hard, shiny surface of pots. It is not possible to credit one individual with the sudden flash of inspiration that led to transfer printing on pottery. Rather, there seems to have been a general interest in expanding the use of printing techniques and adapting them to produce a wider range of decorative processes in the nation's growing industries.
In the 1750s three men made significant advances in the application of printed decoration to ceramic surfaces. In 1751 John Brooks, a Birmingham engraver, petitioned for a patent for “printing, impressing, and reversing upon enamel and china from engraved , etched and mezzotinted plates and from cuttings on wood and mettle...” He was primarily concerned with printed decoration on enamels – boxes, plaques, medallions, etc. His patent application failed and he moved from Birmingham to London where he continued to unsuccessfully apply for patents. He was likely involved in early printing on enamels at both Bilston—near Birmingham—and at Battersea in London.
Credit for perfecting transfer printing on porcelain at the Worcester factory in the 1750s goes to Robert Hancock, an eminent etcher and engraver. Richard and Josiah Holdship, the managers of Worcester, were very supportive and involved with Hancock’s work. By the mid-1750s the Worcester porcelain factory was producing both underglaze prints in blue and overglaze prints, predominately in black.
Sublimation is the transition of a substance directly from the solid phase to the gas phase without passing through an intermediate liquid phase. Sublimation is an endothermic phase transition that occurs at temperatures and pressures below a substance's triple point in its phase diagram.
At normal pressures, most chemical compounds and elements possess three different states at different temperatures. In these cases, the transition from the solid to the gaseous state requires an intermediate liquid state. Note, however, that the pressure referred to here is the partial pressure of the substance, not the total (e.g., atmospheric) pressure of the entire system. So, all solids that possess an appreciable vapor pressure at a certain temperature usually can sublime in air (e.g., water ice just below 0°C). For some substances, such as carbon and arsenic, sublimation is much easier than evaporation from the melt, because the pressure of their triple point is very high, and it is difficult to obtain them as liquids.
Sublimation requires additional energy and is an endothermic change. The enthalpy of sublimation (also called heat of sublimation) can be calculated as the enthalpy of fusion plus the enthalpy of vaporization. The reverse process of sublimation is deposition. The formation of frost is an example of meteorological deposition.
Embroidery is the handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. Embroidery is most often recommended for caps, hats, coats, blankets, dress shirts, denim, stockings, and golf shirts. Embroidery is available with a wide variety of thread or yarn color.
A characteristic of embroidery is that the basic techniques or stitches of the earliest work—chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch—remain the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery today.
