Digital Printing onto diverse surfaces

This skin was produced using acrylic paints coated with a digital ground for non-porous surfaces.

Using our domestic ink-jet printers is another way to get our designs onto surfaces, without resorting to expensive, professionally produced products and studios.

Having begun to build a library of diverse surfaces that will go through the printer, I thought I would jot down a few comments, start a list of references on the subject and show a few images. 

Digital image printed on acrylic skin with cotton strip (middle- running top to bottom) at right is shown translucent un-printed skin

List of surfaces that will pass through a normal ink-jet printer.
Paper - printer, photo, watercolour, crinkle, rice, foiled, novelty...
Fabrics - cotton, silk, satin, muslin, hessian, voile, organz, organdie, Lutrador, Tyvek
Metal meshes
Metal foils - including recycled cans, aluminium, copper or other flashing and kitchen foil...
Metal tape
Skins of glue, acrylic paint, gels
Plastic surfaces - bags, acetate, table top covers, films
Natural surfaces - wood, bark

Note: some of the above require special preparation and a carrier sheet to aid their movement through the printer.

Surface ready for stitching was created in Photoshop and printed on mosquito netting using Golden gel medium and non-porous ground.

Printer Limitations
Clearance of print head... (my printer is an Epson Photostylus 2100, which has a clearance for the print head of 1.3mm) please refer to your printer's user's manual to learn about its limitations

Adjustments to printer

These are necessary to move the surface through the printer without damaging the image whilst it is wet.
Pizza wheels may need to be lifted and instructions for this are online. Here.
Rollers may also be lifted.

Materials that are needed to improve print quality and/or give interesting effects
Golden products - Digital grounds for porous and non-porous surfaces (available in white or transparent, matt and gloss)
Inkaid 
DASS -

Further information
I can help give advice about the actual method if anyone is interested contact me via my profile and check out my blog entries for Feb and March to see more images.

Kathyanne White ran a 5 week online course for this and might do the same again.
If you already know about photoshop then I think this is an expensive way to learn how to print on these surfaces - but that is just my own opinion.

The Golden Website is a good place to read about the technique and the adjustments for printing on different surfaces

The InkAid Website has a good bibliography of online resources such as video tutorials and their FAQs are also very informative

Bonny Lhotka has videos on YouTube and she with others have written a lovely book on the subject - Digital Art Studio: Techniques for Combining Inkjet Printing with Traditional Art Materials [Illustrated] (Paperback)
by Bonny Lhotka, Dorothy Simpson Krause, Karin Schminke