mask-o-tronica 5 - home printed

[phosfate]

Printing on fabric at home is a thing humans can do. If you're set up with basic design/photo software (I'm not) and can print fabric (I can't), it's great because you can (a) make masks with customized and frankly insane designs without having to wait for an online service to ship (my last Redbubble order should arrive exactly a month after I ordered it, which is a bit much) or get nixed for copyright violation. Which is a risk we all take, and not unreasonable, but seriously annoying if your design does not actually violate copyright. You can also fit two designs on an 8.5x11 sheet, and the printing detail is sharp. So those are the pros.

The cons are:

You have to sew them yourself unless you have a very accommodating friend with a sewing machine. If they tolerate your nonsense get them a gift card.

I don't know a thing about what kind of fabric(s) you can use. BUT flat-faced masks have to stretch to make a seal, and be breathable. If the fabric you use can't do that, you are boned. The mask won't filter out your filthy filthy moisture - it will go into your eyes and out into the world, which is the opposite of what you want from a mask. It will also crush the crap out of your nose. (The fabric/tape you use to make the edging doesn't necessarily need to stretch, but you will be more comfy if it can.)

This is my way of saying that I got a home-printed mask off ebay. It has no stretch, hurts like a bitch, is not a great filter, is woven so tightly that it's hard to breathe through, and can barely be tolerated for the length of a bus ride.

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

Oh man, weird.

If I was set up to print on fabric, that would be great, because I do sew, and my nephew wants a Pikmin mask.

Fabric-wise the standard mask fabric I've been using is standard woven cotton. It's breathable, is good at filtering moisture and larger particles, has a degree of stretch, and is about as comfortable as I've found when it comes to masks.

[phosfate]

On mine the edging is cotton (I assume it's seam tape), but the fabric looks like a very tight twill weave in something artificial. This lets it take detailed printing but it has no stretch.

The masks I've had from Redbubble come from different bolts/lots, so there's variance between masks, but they stretch and breathe and often smell pleasantly of ink.

I have a pleated twill mask from the Department of Corrections, in a jolly fugitive orange. It doesn't stretch, but doesn't need to because there's room for a human face and tying it right gives a good seal. I haven't worn it yet, because I keep it in my desk in case I fuck up and leave the house without a mask.

[wolfy_writing]

Ah yeah, that seems like a bad fabric choice. (My brother found a scarf printed with Pikmin, and was all "You could use that for a mask!", but it was 1) some kind of synthetic that I wasn't confident would be breathable, and 2) something that was hand-wash-only, and therefore unsuitable for a seven-year-old unless I wanted his parents to hate me forever.)

Redbubble sounds like people are doing the same thing I am when it comes to buying fabric, but printing on the fabrics.

Ooh, interesting! Twill?

[phosfate]

It's a twill weave, because BOC's stuff has to survive industrial washing machines, but it's cotton fabric.

I find it hilarious that we got orange masks, while the wonderful work-release ladies who clean up after us (seriously, they're amazing - you could eat off this building) sport a handsome slate gray.

[wolfy_writing]

Ah, that makes sense.

And yeah, that's pretty entertaining.

[dr_tectonic]

It may be because I slept poorly last night, but I am inordinately amused by the mental image of using an entire building as a plate.

[phosfate]

It's Prairie Brutalist style. Super flat yet unbelievably ugly.

[dr_tectonic]

Good for sandwiches, not for soup.

[phosfate]

Plus you'd get 50-year-old roof gravel in your soup. I don't even want to think about what's up there.