Printing on Velvet and Wax Candles for Fête Events

Fête Events came to Sun Studio with a full event look and two materials that had nothing in common.

We printed onto the velvet that was later stretched over the event chairs, and onto the wax pillar candles that sat on the tables. Their design team supplied the artwork.

Project facts

Client

Fête Events

Location

Dubai

Materials

Velvet and wax pillar candles

Printing service

Fabric & textile printing, candle & jar printing

Application

Event chairs and table candles on one theme

Artwork

Supplied by the client’s design team

The requirement

Both materials had to read as the same event from across a room, despite having almost nothing in common as printing surfaces.

What we did

The velvet was printed flat and stretched over the chair backs afterwards, so the artwork was laid out for what it would look like once pulled over a curve rather than flat on a table.

The candles were printed direct onto the wax, with the artwork matched to the velvet so the two carry the same theme.

Technical considerations

Velvet has a pile, so ink lands on fibres that move and lie in a direction, and fine halftone detail is the first thing a pile surface destroys. This velvet was then going to be stretched over a curved chair back, so the artwork had to survive being pulled without the image distorting.

Wax is harder still: a soft, genuinely low surface energy material that resists adhesion and tolerates neither heat nor pressure.

The outcome

A room where the chairs and the tables carry the same look, printed on two materials that behave nothing alike.