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In addition to a printer, paper, a heat press, and blanks, what else is necessary for sublimation printing? I’m sharing my must-have and nice-to-have sublimation supplies, tools, and accessories!
So you’ve got yourself a sublimation printer! You’re all set with sublimation ink, sublimation paper, a heat press, and your favorite sublimation blanks.
But what other tools and supplies might you find helpful for sublimation crafting?
This post is part of my sublimation series geared toward beginner sublimation crafters. I’m breaking down the complicated, jargon-filled world of sublimation printing so you (yes you!) can understand it more easily and get to making beautiful things without a lot of overwhelm.
You can check out all the posts in this series here:
Now that I’ve been doing sublimation crafts for a while, I’ve collected quite a few accessories, supplies, and tools that I’ve found helpful. Of course, you don’t need all of these things for sublimation crafts, but as you start to make more and more sublimation projects, you’ll figure out which you might want to add to your craft room!
Here are a few places I like to shop for sublimation supplies:
Hot tip: sign up for the email lists of these companies to learn about sales and coupons!
We’ll start with the things I think are most helpful—my “must haves”—and then move to the other supplies, tools, and accessories that I think are handy to have around when you’re doing sublimation crafting.
Here are a few things that I think every sublimation crafter should have in their craft room. Have questions about anything? Let me know in the comments!
Heat-Resistant Tape: Heat-resistant tape is used to secure your printed transfer to your blank so that it doesn’t shift during pressing. These days, I more often turn to my Heat-Resistant Adhesive Spray, which is listed below, but tape is less expensive and often easier to procure, so it’s on my must-have list.
Butcher Paper: Butcher paper both protects your blank from the heat platen, as well as the plates of your heat press from ink bleed-through from your image. I used to buy butcher paper on rolls, but now I spend just a bit more to buy it in sheets (which are generally designed for deli meats!). Sheets are about a million times easier than dealing with butcher paper on the roll. Make sure you are buying unwaxed, uncoated butcher paper.
Lint Roller: Before you press just about any sublimation project, it’s best to run a lint roller over the entire surface of your blank. Dust, lint, and other small particles can cause spots and other issues with your transfer. A lint roller is an easy way to prevent that! You can also use rubbing alcohol on non-porous surfaces, which I’ve linked below.
Polyester Fabric for Testing: One of the best things I did was buy several yards of 100% polyester fabric. This has allowed me to test all of my prints before printing and sublimating them onto the more expensive blank! Doing this has saved me so much trouble and money because any issues I might have with my print (usually involving color) are discovered BEFORE I press the image onto my blank. I HIGHLY recommend doing this.
These next items are super helpful to have, but don’t feel like you need to invest in everything right away! As you craft more and more with your sublimation printer, you’ll figure out which of these things will make your life easier.
Auto-Cut Tape Dispenser: Heat-resistant tape is a must-have, but if you want to make it easier on yourself, check out this awesome tape dispenser. It holds up to four kinds of tape and it automatically cuts pieces as you spin the wheel. This tape dispenser makes that process so much easier, dispensing perfectly sized pieces of tape so you can tape down your transfer to your blank quickly and easily. Love this thing.
Rubbing Alcohol (and Cotton Balls): A lint roller will work for cleaning just about any blank before applying your transfer, but I have found that rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball is just easier than a lint roller on things like mugs. Personal preference, but you may wish to give this combo a shot in addition to a lint roller.
Heat-Resistant Adhesive Spray: I mentioned it above, but I’ve come to really love my heat-resistant adhesive spray. Instead of bothering with tape, just spray a bit of this adhesive on your transfer and press to your blank. The adhesive doesn’t leave any sort of residue on the blank and it doesn’t affect the transfer. SO easy.
Heat-Resistant Gloves: If you need to remove a pressed item from a hot press, these heat-resistant gloves make it easy. I used to fuss with a pot holder, but now I just throw on these gloves and I can move items from my hot press to be cooled. Easy and not expensive.
Heat-Resistant Mat: Speaking of moving things to a cooling area, you’ll probably want a heat-resistant mat for your hot projects. You can use a Cricut EasyPress mat, but I more often use my wool pressing mat. It’s a bit more thick and sturdy so items like tumblers don’t tip over quite as easily.
Pressing Pillow: Use a pressing pillow on soft blanks and garments with zippers, buttons, seams, and pockets to help get an even press. You place the pillow inside the shirt or other blank to basically raise up the pressing surface above the troublesome parts of the garment for an even press.
Heat-Conductive Rubber Pad: Some blanks, like ceramic tiles, may require you to use a heat-conductive rubber pad when you press so that it can form to the shape of the blank more easily. The manufacturer’s pressing instructions will let you know if you need one and how to use it. They aren’t cheap, so make sure you really need one for the types of projects you want to make. Also check out Heat Press Nation for availability.
Nomex Pad: Another option is a Nomex pad. This is a thick (thick!) piece of felt that works similarly to the rubber pad for pressing. If you use a convection oven for sublimation, you can also use a Nomex pad inside the oven to protect your blank from rack lines. These are also a bit harder to find and are expensive as well, but may be required if you’re using certain types of blanks.
And there you have it! My must-have sublimation supplies and tools, as well as a bunch of other things I find super helpful to have in my craft room. Have anything to add to the list? Let me know in the comments!
Sublimation Supplies You Might NeedView Full Version : reasons why people sell sublimation businesses
Simong12
Just a general question might sound like a stupid question. perhaps it is? im a full time maintenance engineer and do sublimation mugs in spare time as a hobbyist. and because of youtube and Paul's brilliant videos!, it looked practically something i could do and for fun for presents gifts and so on. as i prefer to do things myself if i can, right to my thread,
when looking for equipment on ebay because I'm on a budget or starter, the adverts always say selling because of new business venture, looking at sublimation you can do a lot of stuff, why do people sell up?
Is profit margins not good enough, technical knowledge not enough on process, time, too many people doing it?
I think all these things but before setting up a business people do there homework on these things.
just general thoughts why people would leave completely to start a new business venture?
i would just like to echo what a lot of members say, that the forum is brilliant. Thumbs up justin. And Paul and anyone I've missed who contribute.
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pisquee
My assumptoins only, not based on research, apart from reading between the lines of many posts on forums like this, and the Ebay ads you talk about...
People think that this is a get rich quick scheme, they watch the videos of people doing it on YouTube, and think it's gonna be easy. They don't do any market research or do a business plan, just buy a load of kit and blanks.
Generally, people also forget that they are going to need to be able to design what they're printing, and design it well if they want good sales, and an understanding of graphics software. So many posts from newbies on here are asking where they can download an image of this celebrity or that cartoon character, or some famous company logo.
Also a technical grounding in how to run and maintain the equipment, along with being able to fault find, and tweak/improve all helps.
They read an Ebay advert saying buy this kit, and you'll make a fortune, but with no business plan or market research, they only know about selling on Ebay, where a beginner is going to struggle.
They get confused by posts on forums, and advice from salesmen, saying that theirs is the "best" kit, or that expensive ink brand x is the only brand they can use with that printer.
Once they've realised that they aren't an artist or graphic designer, don't have the technical grounding to manage the equipment and production process, or the business plan to make any money, the give up as quickly as they decided to get into their new get rich scheme and use those fund to buy into the next one.
The advantage for everyone else is that there's always a good supply of barely used equipment on Ebay to be snapped up at bargain prices.
Paul
First, thank you for kind words. This forum wouldn't exist without excellent members and the content they putting in.
Unfortunately i don't know exact answer for your question but i will share with You what I noticed few times...
As you said, many people must do they research? Yes. They do. often on eBay. They see loads of people sell unlicensed mugs and t-shirts and they think "hey ho!!! I can do that!" And they buy all equipment, inks, printers and blanks and off they go on eBay selling stuff bit cheaper then something that is already to cheap to make any money.
All you need to do is to look at their feedbacks. lot of them sell football mugs that not licensed and try to make money on a mug for £3.99 incl stage.
with this business model is obwious that their equipment will be for sale soon.
Simong12
I agree, ebay does make sublimation equipment look great for someone to start a business, or hobby, did to me? when I saw the stuff I said to my wife it would be 12 months before she sees the benefit of me doing it, I do enjoy the fact with the mugs of taking the random photos put them on a mug and give them for birthdays and xmas, and people say where I had it from and say did it myself,
the side you don't see is the time to do the templates on photoshop, that takes me the longest,
with the all the sublimation blanks you can buy today, do people allow that in there business plan?
or do people keep to a small selection, because of stock of blanks and the cost, as blanks can be expensive to buy, I stick to buying small amounts on ebay,
ArferMo
I'm lucky as I have one of the countries largest clothing/vinyl supplier/stockists 5 minutes drive away and can order up till 9pm and collect as late as 10pm and there is a sublimation/vinyl/ink/toner/imprintables supplier 15 minutes away so I don't need to hold much stock as I can pick it up as and when required. As a bonus one is a UK agent for Conde/Sawgrass/SunAngel and the other is a stockist for Embroidery/Xpress/TheMagicTouch/EZtrans
Both of those businesses are run by the most helpful teams and it is a pleasure to buy from them and recommend them to friends.
I never buy stock from eBay...... if its on there.... there is a reason, most lightly it's substandard or faulty.
FBW
Whooo hoo ...I just sold my first two mugs on fleabay.
Im gonna be rich rich rich beyond my wildest dreams :) :)
Seriously this is much like my other "hobby", photography. With lower prices for good quality cameras and even cameras on phones getting better with each updated iphone everyone is now becoming a photographer. I only started 3 years ago and seemed to have picked it up quite nicely - certainly I get a lot of models travelling huge distances to shoot with me BUT...I make diddly squat from it. There's no money in the game. Even wedding photographers are getting squeezed out.
And..I imagine that's similar for the printing game. As equipment becomes cheaper and better quality...anyone can have a go.
I bought my mugpress over Xmas period mainly so I can cheaply add a marketing gimmick to my main business....now I dont have the funds to go to someone and buy a 1000 mugs and after reading through this forum it looked feasible to do it myself.
But yeah....if I can sell a few to pay the costs for my own stuff then that would be cool. Unfortunately for those that make a career out of dye sublimation printing there will be hundreds like me and the cake slices will get thinner and thinner, as it has in photography. A lot of the older photographers feel threatened and dont understand they need to evolve their business model....and they will be the ones going out of business. To run a photography business nowadays is 95% marketing skills and 5% taking a good snap.
Times they are a changing. The internet has made it possible for anybody to become whoever they want - quite easily.
Simong12
I brought my items off ebay for £130, was 71 mugs, mug press and epson printer with ciss system full of new ink, in apr14, and have now brought Ricoh sg3110dn and Pixmax swing press, photoshop and brought 20 mouse mats,20 coasters, and 10 jigsaws, and so far still have 36 mugs and the rest haven't used the press yet. For me it's the ease of ebay for blanks really.
I would like to do the clocks, glass, other stuff but I haven't got the belief to do more as I love my job as engineer,
Its still fun for me,
Simong12
Like most people I've seen mugs for £4 including delivery, and unless they sell loads, I can't see a big profit in that,
the people that sell all gear I can only assume they didn't have the drive and heart to continue with sublimation, because as some have said you need business plan.
or I suppose when on ebay they are lying on listing to sell items,
JMugs
To make money you don't need to be the best at printing, like wise you can not be useless, you need to be what your market expects .....you need to understand business.
Printing is easy really, marketing, designing etc is the money maker and that is where you need to understand (or be prepared to learn) business.
Just my thoughts.
rossdv8
From a hobbyists point of view, I can imagine a lot of people seeing the relatively low start up cost of equipment, blanks and consumables being an enticement to start 'printing money'. Then perhaps, after ruining a carton of mugs and a few dozen tee shirts, deciding it is all a waste.
I firmly believe the advice on this forum has probably saved a heap of start up entrepreneurs from that, but it is still risky for beginners, not because of any complexity in the design and pressing process, but because people simply don;t investigate the cost versus sales versus time aspect.
Sure, you can make a good profit on an item like a mug. But how long did it take you to create the design and actually make the thing? More than the 7 minutes to print, cut, tape and press, then strip and cool, I bet. And then you might be sending it off. So there's the time involved in packing, addressing, calling the freight company or wandering to the post office.
All this has to be converted to minutes per product and dollars per hour, on top of the cost of the blank and consumables, and so many people never bother. So they try to cut the guts out of the competition, then they wonder why they seem to be doing so much work and not actually making money.
They decide it is all too difficult and another 'starter business' is for sale with 'everything you need to get rich quick'.
Luckily the Pauls, pisquees, Niks, Charleseses and other regulars here are around to rescue some of us with advice, probably because they have worked out their math well enough to stay in business and provide some inspiration.
Then you get the clowns like me. Hobbyists who work a niche tourist market for fun and refuse to sell anything at all without a certain minimum of profit. Direct sales to niche markets is a numbers and patience game, and you more or less need to have confidence in your ability to sell eggs to a chook to succeed. And nothing succeeds like a budgie. You also need to have time, cash reserves and location on your side and the willingness to experiment and learn from numerous mistakes.
As long as people see this industry as a get rich quick scheme there will be start up businesses advertised. It is surprising how much 'ill health' is around.
GoonerGary
OK I'll confess, about 14 years ago I saw a guy on ebay with about 4 pages a day of positive feedback selling mugs for £10 including postage and I was like ...wooaah, I can do that. So I had to try and figure out how they were printed. Had no business plan and bought my £800 mug press probably on a credit card. It was a good way to improve my Photoshop skills, but the rest of the skills required for this business I had already I suppose. I didn't have time for my real lecturing job!
NB Don't follow my experience anyone.
AlanD
I bought the mug pressing equipment so I use mugs as a marketing tool for my proper business as a signmaker. I am selling a few but mainly to people who are coming through my door anyway, I have them on my website but not to sell from my website. The margins are low and if you try and match some of the ebay prices non existant. I use Corel Draw for all the origination and it works as well as anything else I've used and much easier than Photoshop. I try and sell on design content not price but I do have the advantage of having their logo on file anyway and I am familiar with my software.
Looking at some prices on ebay or the web they are making next to nothing and it doesn't seem worth the effort unless they are selling hundreds a day
Quinsfan
I am a year down the line and have made back my initial outlay and have had a nice christmas. Most of the kids presents were from my sub and sign work. I work full time as a sign fitter so the sub work and private signage is all a welcome extra. I am currently having a young person ( I am to old to understand all this web building stuff) look at my website, instagram and Facebook to try and build my local presence. All we want is enough work to maybe pay for a nice holiday. I know that Mr Taxman will need to be informed but as it is all cash at the moment the floor boards will be used:wink:. I am happy to slowly build my reputation and client base and if one day down the line my wife or I can give up working for some one else then all well and good.
I am enjoying the big learning curve and the friendliness of this forum.
rossdv8
It is interesting the number of us who got into sublimation or decorating as an adjunct to an existing business. After being in computing off and on since 1971 I moved in 1981 to a different part of the country where I think there were only two computers in the city. By 1984 I was back in computing among other things and helped a mate start a computer generated sign business. In 1984 I think our colour printer that printed 13 inches wide was one of five in the country. By 1991 I had the first portable vinyl sign cutting system in the country that could be taken on site in my sports car and produced vinyl signs 17 inches high.
All this was before MS Dos and Windows or Mac. So when the sublimation accident happened to me, I was sort of prepared to do unusual stuff. It has been interesting and fun. But I don't like competing by price cutting. My answer all my life has been 'they have it cheaper? great - buy it from them'.
I base my product pricing on the prices at this crowd BEFORE they are crossed out for the discount. So, the prices are in black with the line through them. I find that gives me a nice comfprtable margin.
http://www.vistaprint.com.au/personalised-mugs.aspx?txi=15204&xnid=TopNav_Mugs+%28linked+item%29_Photo+Gifts_All +Products&xnav=TopNav
Then I just add a bit extra for the personal touch.
bigj2552
if it wasn't for this forum...we would not have started anything within the sublimation field...
i seen some samples on here and youtube and thought...Hmm...that looks like a challenge and interesting....
looked more into it on here.....then went n bought the equipment ( mug & flat swing away press ) and about £300 of stock to practice on.....
3 months later after more reading on here and more practice, we set up web site.....months after that we were live....
only got the odd sale here n there cause no one had heard of us......then we thought about ebay - perfect way to get our products out to the masses....
it took another 4/5 months for that to really start bringing in decent sales....another 6months or so of ebay ( 1 yr total ) we started looking more into promoting web site seriously...
the rest....is well, history now ;-)
its def not a get rich quick business, but if you have the head for business and patience,and a real liking for the sublimation business, no reason why you cant succeed....
but.....
the sub market has gotten more n more saturated since we started start of 2012....as many on here will prob agree.....and you really need your head screwed on now....you cant just sit back and list your stuff on ebay and web site and wait for the orders to come in ...na na....marketing has a very , very big play in this now a days...and getting your name out there is vital if you want the exposure and to succeed ....:wink:
AlanD
Absolutely agree, you have to tell the world and his wife you are about and what you sell. if you don't - the competitors will.
rossdv8
An essential part of any business plan is a marketing plan. Sadly I think some of these sub businesses that people are trying to get out of had neither in place. Obviously there are also a few that are simply sold due to lack of time or due to ill health.
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