Introduction

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After months of working with Silicone and being frustrated with how much clothing we've ruined by getting weird goops onto it, Andy finally had the realization that this might actually make silicone a really good material to print with!

So a few days before, preparing for Arse Elektronika 2014, we tested it out and it worked great! This printing process has a couple key advantages over other fabric printing processes I have played around with:

Durable - It's pure silicone bonded with your fabric and it is heat and water resistant! Haven't noticed any kind of fade in the fabric from old stains.

Textural - Depending on how you apply the silicone you can get different textural patterns. You can make it nice and smooth, get tattered edges, or even have a spiky texture all over it.

Structural - Because you can apply it with some thickness, you could more securely and waterproofly mount e-textiles into your clothing while maintaining their structural integrity. You can alter the silicone's opacity and internal reflectance (with stuff like Glitter) to create nice glow patterns with embedded LEDs.

Protective - This printing not only looks neat, but it can also reinforce parts of your clothing that might be in high-impact zones.

Quick! - The silicone we use is fully set up in just an hour. Your shirts are ready to wear really quickly and won't take up tons of drying space and also don't need a final ironing to make them stick like many fabric paints.

Materials

Silicone - We used Dragon Skin 10 Fast. It is super stretchy and durable. For a cheaper option, you could also use things like Acetic Acid curing silicone caulk with a dish soap catalyst as seen in this instructable
Cardstock, Tagboard, or Thin Cardboard (for stencils). Think like the nice laminated compact cardboard like they use in cereal boxes.
Paint
Brush
Squeegee or Disposable Popsicle Sticks (you may use popsicle sticks as your squeegeeing instrument)
Disposable Cups (for mixing your silicone and color)
The thing you will print on (fabric like t-shirts, or wood, or metal)
Flat underboard (put inside t-shirt to keep everything flat and tight, a cutting board would work too)
Masking Tape (to block off parts of stencil, or protect excess areas)
X-acto knife (for cutting stencil)
(Optional) Laser cutter (fancy, quick stencils)
Disposable gloves

Step 1: Cut the Stencil

Using your hobby knife, cut out your design on the cardstock. If you are using a laser cutter, make sure that all text has lines through any holes (like in an "O"), or else you will end up with just a big blob. Don't make your designs too intricate, or else the cardstock might not stand up to it, and your designs might leak.

Step 2: Prep the Stencil

Put your shirt (or whatever you're printing on) on a nice clean flat surface. Load your flat underboard inside it (this is important: it will keep one side of the shirt from bleeding onto the back). Now tape off the edges of your stencil to keep it in place. And, if you are doing a two-part stencil, tape off the regions for the final color.

Keep a flipped up tab of tape wherever you have parts of the stencil marked off.

When you are taping off a specific part of the stencil, make sure to fold some of your tape up (as shown on the heart in the design). Once the silicone has been squeezed over the design, it will get gross and hard to pull up. This little tab will help you out!

Step 3: Mix the Silicone

Double check that everything is prepped (there will be a ticking clock after this step). First, you will want to put on disposable gloves to wear while handling your silicone mixtures. After putting on your gloves, you will then be ready to create your mixture. To begin, mix your silicone with the desired color of paint (or inclusions like glitter, or whatever!). Depending on the effect you want and the cure time of your silicone, you may want to wait a bit before printing. For Dragon Skin silicone (with a pot life of 8 minutes), mix for a minute, and then wait for 3 more minutes for it to thicken up. When using an Acetic Acid curing silicone caulk (with a pot life of 10 minutes), mix the desired color with the caulk for a minute, and then prepare to apply mixture to the surface area on which you are printing. Remember, the thicker silicone goes on smoother and does not bleed into the fabric as much. If you wait too long, however, you won't be able to get the silicone into your design at all!

Step 4: Print

The silicone is a bit unlike regular screen printing where you want to apply a nice smooth line near the design (but not really onto it). If it is as least a little bit thick, and your stencil is firmly in place, try to loosely glop the silicone into the design directly. Have your squeegee (or Popsicle stick) near by, as you will quickly begin to distribute your silicone mixture all over the design smoothly. Start by pressing hard to make sure the silicone gets everywhere, but then start to squeegee lightly on your final pass, allowing for nice thick letters. You don’t want the silicone piled up above the stencil. Squeegee excess silicone from your stencil and place back in your disposable container.

Step 5: Heat

After applying your silicone mixture to your design, blast the design
for 20 seconds with a heat gun. You will then begin to carefully peel the stencil off. Once your stencil has been completely removed, take your heat gun and blast your entire design again for about 30-60 seconds.

Step 6: Drying Time With Underboard

Make sure to keep your underboard inside the shirt for at least 30 more
minutes to prevent the silicone from leaking through and gluing your shirt stuck to the underboard. For the best results, you should allow your silicone print to dry over a 24 hour period.

Step 7: (Advanced) Embed Electronics

Silicone printing could solve a lot of problems with e-textiles
(waterproofing components, stopping threads or wires from moving, or getting shorted, and adding structure for haptic interaction). We haven’t tested this that much, but plan to do so in the future! Once we get good conductive silicone going, you can imagine printing squishy stretchy circuits right onto your clothing itself!

Meanwhile you can pop electronics under the silicone and just print right over it. The silicone makes nice diffuse light for basic LEDs that you put inside!

Introduction: Print With Silicone