Pixiq

So now that I have wet your appetite for that great paper, Sheer Heaven from Cre8It city otherwise known as the site to get Sheer Heaven paper, let me quickly walk you through the steps. As I said in my previous post, you can get absolutely perfect transfers using the Sheer Heaven paper, or you can get more of the look of the transfer that you can get from Polaroid, Fuji, or Impossible Project analog film, again for a fraction of the cost.  (And don't get me wrong, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the analog stuff and you will see me posting on that, too, but my students don't like the cost, which in their pocketbooks, can be almost prohibitive.) 

So, let me walk you quickly through the steps on how to work this wonderout, vellum-like paper.

First and foremost, the Sheer Heaven paper is meant to go through an inkjet printer, not a laser printer, although I experimented with a laser printer and figured out how to output images. (See the the 4th image, (photographed using my Nikon D-SLR with my homemade fisheye lens), aptly titled the "doggy bag"- hey, sense of humor is paramount, right?)

So here are the items you want to have on hand:

• Sheer Heaven paper
• Inkjet printer or copier (dye-based and pigment based inkjets work equally well)           
• 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol (do not use 90% or ethyl rubbing alcohol)spray bottle (for the alcohol)

• Burnishing tool, such as a bone folder or spoon

• Porous receiver surface (the transfer technique won’t work on non-porous surfaces; the ink cannot sink into the substrate and will blur) And yes, you can also transfer on fabric and like surfaces, I have

Step 1:  Make an inkjet print or copy onto a sheet of Sheer Heaven paper, making sure that you print to the rough, suede-like side. (You can print on the Sheer Heaven paper ahead of time—you don’t need to transfer the image to your substrate right away.) Gather your substrate paper or material and burnishing tool. Hint: Make sure you create a mirror of your image for printing, as it will appear backwards otherwise. This is especially important if there are words in your images.

(Now for the Bench image (image 1), (also one of my banner posts (subject to change based on  I used a homemade fisheye lens with my Nikon D-SLR camera to capture the image.Then I tweaked it in Studio Artist before I output it onto the Sheer Heaven paper and eventual substrate of watercolor paper. (By the way, I love to combine multiple processes but as you see my posts, you will get that right away. Experimenting is the key to success - and as we know, there are no failures, just happy accidents with art. However, do you think Polaroid got its lift?) Anyway, I digress ...

Step 2: Holding the Sheer Heaven paper flat and parallel to the floor, spray the printed image with the 70% rubbing alcohol. Holding the sprayer about 6 inches above the paper, cover the area with a light mist. The ink should appear to have a fine gloss to it after spraying.  

Finally, Place the Sheer Heaven print face side down onto the porous substrate. (The alcohol on the surface of the Sheer Heaven paper makes it slightly tacky, so the paper will adhere to the substrate.) Burnish the print with a bone folder, the back of a spoon, or another similar tool. The better the contact with the substrate, the more perfect the image transfer.

But as you can see in my images and samples, I like the effect of the imperfect, since I am, and I am sticking to it. So, burnish to your heart's content if you want an exact duplication of what you see on your computer screen or lift like an angel to get the effect in image 2; either way your output will be perfection.

Happy trails and  light on.

-e.