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Interview with Julie Sessions

Inspirational is definitely the word we’d use to describe Julie Sessions.  She is the Director of Academic Technology at Porter-Gaud, a school here in the Charleston, South Carolina.  She has found some innovative ways to use sublimation in the classroom.   We recently interviewed her about how she uses Sawgrass in the class.

Tell us a little about how you use sublimation in the classroom.

Sublimation is used in several different ways at our school. In our Lower School Art classes, students make products based on their artwork. First graders draw on one side of a linen make-up bag with sublimation fabric markers and then their artwork is sublimated and heat pressed on the other. They use this as a pencil pouch. Second graders make Rainbow Row mugs of their Rainbow Row artwork. Third graders make tote bags with a chosen piece of art on each side. Fourth graders use sublimation markers to make their own mug designs. All of the Lower School students made coasters with designs drawn on our school crest with sublimation markers and then heat pressed on the coaster. A couple of the grade levels make ornaments with pictures of the students in their play costumes. The Middle School Art club students make mugs from their hand-drawn designs. The Upper School student council makes t-shirts, tumblers, mugs and other items as they would like based on interest. 

How did you come about the concept of using sublimation to help teach?

My role as the Director of Academic Technology is to integrate technology within the curriculum. I was looking for ways to integrate technology in the Arts and wanted to explore the concept of sublimation. We were already using the Cricut and Silhouette and we wanted something that could do more than those machines and programs.  After doing some research, we decided that the Sawgrass printer got the best reviews so we purchased one.  From there we did some training with Vik Patel and our teachers were hooked!

What lessons do students learn through sublimation?

Students learn patience and to be detail oriented. Often students want to rush through a drawing so they can make a product. We make sure they know this is published artwork and that this has to be their best effort. Students also learn that detail matters. When students add an outline to something they see how it makes the design look different (and often better). Students learn the scientific process of sublimation. We make sure to teach them the science behind what is happening. Students also learn that anyone can be an artist! 

How do the students react to seeing their art on products?

Students love seeing their artwork come to life! There is excitement and pride in the faces of the students when they see the final product. I often expect the older students to not be as excited, but their faces light up every time they make products, too!

How has your program evolved over the last few years?

We are in the second year of our program and have plans to continue the growth of the program into the Arts in the Middle and Upper School classes. The first year was about training and pilot groups. The second year we integrated sublimation within the LS Art curriculum and now we will continue to do that with the MS and US for the next couple of years.

What’s your favorite thing about using sublimation in the classroom?

The excitement when the students see the final product. They never seem to believe me when I say the marker colors will change and be more vibrant. And then their eyes light up when they see their artwork on the item…that is definitely the best part!

Is there anything new/different about sublimation that you’d like to learn but haven’t?

There are two things that I would like to do with sublimation. First, I would like to have a larger printer so we can create larger products. The second thing I would like to know is how to successfully sublimate on socks. I cannot seem to figure out how to stretch them and get the design right or how to wrap around the whole sock. 

What’s next for you with sublimation? What other projects would you like to take on?

We are growing the amount of projects we are doing in our curriculum to include Middle School and Upper School Art classes. I need to meet with the Art teachers and see what they would like to make. We want to have a unique project each year so we will have to meet and see what would be age and grade level appropriate as well as differentiate the products made.

What piece of advice would you like to share with other sublimators? 

Have a good budget! It is addicting and students and teachers are going to want to make so many products. Also, materials matter. Having the Sawgrass printer that is truly a sublimation printer, in my opinion, is better than a printer that is made to be a sublimation printer by changing the ink. The blanks that you use have to be good quality. Find a distributor (we use craftexpress.com) that you trust will provide you with quality products. 

If you own a Sawgrass printer, these orders will come to you for you to produce.  We wanted to give you some tips and tricks on how to make the best use of the  social sharing features located within your MySawgrass Store.  

Social sharing is a great way to share your creations with your friends, family, or followers as a way to showcase your passion, keep your followers engaged, and increase sales.  With MySawgrass, we’ve made it quick and easy to share your products or store directly to your social platforms.  To share a link to your store, go to your My Store profile and click the Share button. From here, you have the option to share a direct post on your personal accounts for Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. You can also copy your direct link for pasting into an email, text or social post. Share links to your store initially to let everyone know about it.  Add some details to your post about what products you’ll be selling and what types of designs buyers can expect to see.  Whenever you add several new designs, share the links again to let potential customers know that new product designs have been added.  On sites like Instagram and Facebook, pin posts with your store information so it’s right at the top whenever someone thinks of your store and wants to go shop.  

When you would like to share an individual product, go to your desired product and click the links icon under the product thumbnail.  From here, you have the option to share a direct post on your personal accounts for Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. You can also embed the link into an email or copy your direct link for pasting into a text or social post. 

In addition to social sharing, your MySawgrass store also offers the ability to share your individual products using quick links. Quick links offer the ability to not only share a more customized experienced to your followers, but their shortened format makes them a great tool for social selling. To access quick links, go to your desired product and click the View Details button. This will take you to the Product Detail page.  

From here, click the Share button in the top right corner. This will reveal three quick links. 

The first link, generates a quick link that will send your followers directly to this product’s detail page. Customers can review your product and add to cart or use the customize button to personalize the product and make it their own.  This feature will only be available if you enabled customizing.  You can also choose how much the product can be changed in the Lock Layers feature.  

The second link is the Cart Shortcut link. When clicked, this link will automatically add your product to the customer’s cart and take the customer to checkout. This link is perfect for non-customizable products.  Our last link is our Designer Shortcut link. This link is exclusively for products that can be personalized by the customer. When clicked, this link will directly open the DesignMate designer tool. Users can make their edits and then add straight to their cart.  

That’s the basics of sharing your products on social media.  We’ll be adding more selling tips each month, so make sure to check our blog area for updates!

The Nozzle Check 

One of the most valuable tools you have for troubleshooting your Sawgrass Printer is the nozzle check.  Nozzle checks are a great diagnostic tool to help you get a visual look at the overall health of your print head. 

Printing nozzle checks are not a printer maintenance function.  You do not need to print them regularly, but they are a great tool when you feel something is off with your prints and you want to rule out clogged nozzles.  

However, if you have not used your printer in a while, when you go to use the printer again, it may be a good idea to print out a nozzle check first to make sure your printer is in proper working order. You can also print a nozzle check periodically during times when you aren’t using the printer frequently to push ink through the lines.  While the printer does do auto maintenance daily, a print will always use more, even if it is the small amount used for a nozzle check.  The other benefit to a nozzle check is that it can be printed on regular copy paper and you do not need to use a sheet of your sublimation paper for the print.  

Normally, you’ll want to print a nozzle check if you feel a color is missing from your print.  If it seems like the printer isn’t using as much of one of the four inks as it normally does, then it is a good idea to print a nozzle check.  You’d also use this tool if there are lines in print that should not be there.  Typically, these run from left to right.  It just looks like ink should have been in the spot and it is not.


Nozzle checks can be printed from two places: from the printer utilities section of your devices page in the Sawgrass Print Utility or from the LCD panel of the printer itself. To access a nozzle check from the Sawgrass Print Utility, click on Settings from the left menu and then go to the Devices tab.  Choose the printer for which you need to complete the nozzle check, and then select Printer Utilities from the bottom of the printer information section.  You’ll notice there are two nozzle checks listed.  For most situations, the first nozzle check is all that you need.  Major clogs will be detected by it and it uses the least amount of ink.  If your nozzle check looks fine, but you are still having issues, you can print a nozzle check plus.  The difference between the two is that the Plus check pushes ink through even the smallest of holes in the head.  While clogs in these fine printing areas are generally not an issue, this will let you know if that is where your problem may be.  

To print a nozzle check from the printer, first hit the menu button then the down arrow for printer features, press okay, then press okay again on the List/test print option then down arrow again until nozzle check pattern is highlighted. Press okay again, then the button underneath the word print.  From here the printer will then print out a nozzle test pattern.
When this page prints, you should see four different color grids. Each grid will have lines in the middle that are more off set and disconnected, additionally, they may be slightly slanted, and lastly you should see the “tail” on the bottom left side of the grid. Your main goal when printing a nozzle check is to make sure that all your lines in each color pattern are filled in, with none missing. If you have a line missing in any part of your grid, this essentially means you may have a small clog somewhere in your print head. Generally, you will only see misses in one color, but you will sometimes see them in two.  It could be one line segment missing, or it may be more depending on how large of a clog you have.  

If you ever have missing nozzles generally these can be fixed by performing a head clean. The head clean will push a small amount of ink and try to push it through the print head in attempts to get the missing nozzle to reappear.  Head cleans are located in the same area as the nozzle check in the Sawgrass Print Utility and on the printer.  With the nozzle check you will also see two sets of numbers, one being above the patterns for both black and cyan, while two being above the grids for yellow and magenta. This is to indicate the sides of the print head that those colors share. With side one hosting black and cyan, and side two with the magenta and yellow channels. With a nozzle check printed out if you have missing nozzle in only one grid, like magenta for examples, then when performing a head clean, you will only need to clean side two of the print head instead of cleaning all heads. Once that head clean finishes, you will then want to print out a second nozzle check so you can compare both sets of grids to check for improvement of the recovered missing lines. If your missing lines are now back and your grids look full and healthy, you can continue printing as normal! If your error is persistent, you can rinse and repeat this process two to three times, if you continue to have issues with your nozzle check patterns, or experience quickly repeated issues, then you will want to contact our care team using the help bubble in the lower right corner of our website or by going to care.sawgrassink.com. An agent can walk you through more troubleshooting steps with you and get you up and printing again. 

The Importance of Leaving Your Printer Turned on and Plugged in. 

One of the many perks highlighted about owning a Sawgrass sublimation printer is the fact that it’s supposed to be low maintenance with minimal interaction needed in between prints. The main focus of this minimal interaction is that we recommend that you leave your printers turned on and plugged into a power source so it can perform what is known as the automatic maintenance cycle.

When not in use, your printer will enter a sleep mode where the LCD screen of your printer will go blank, but the power light will remain the nice bright blue color. In this state the printer is essentially asleep, but this will still allow the printer to perform its maintenance automatically. These cycles it performs are mandatory due to the nature of all sublimation ink. All ink in an injet printer has a natural tendency to want to coagulate with itself and clump together if it sits in one spot for too long. As you can imagine this can be quite troublesome if this occurs within the innermost components of the printer, being the print head or the ink lines. Clumps, clogs, and more can cause issue with how your printer performs, both in printing, and when performing its daily maintenance.

By leaving your printer turned on and plugged in, this allows the printer to perform like it should whenever you want to print. The idea is that no matter how much or little you print, this maintenance will always allow you to use your printer whenever you want to, regardless of if you print once a week, once every three weeks, or even every day if you want, or hundreds of times a day if desired. Now with the maintenance cycle itself, generally what is happening is that the printer will push through a tiny amount of ink from the cartridge, through the lines of the printer, through the print head, into your waste unit every 8-12 hours or so that the printer is idle. Generally the amount used will be less than one percent of any given cartridge. However, in some cases if the printer is detecting a clog of some kind in the lines or print head then this can cause the printer to use slightly more ink to get the issue cleared. Those percentages will vary in every scenario. With the maintenance happening every 12 hours or so, one thing to note is that this can be influenced by your printing habits. Your printer will understand that with every print you are doing, that the ink is being used, pushed, and pulled through the lines and print head for your prints. It would then be absolutely fair to say that the more you print to your printer, the less maintenance it will perform, and thus the less waste will generate in your waste unit.


Of course, we understand that with leaving the printer on and plugged in, this can be difficult in certain situations such as if you need to move the printer, dealing with a power outage, or even some type of inclement weather. The important thing to know is that the printer won’t “break” or immediately have a clog or issue the moment you turn it off. In these situations, it’s understandable and okay. It’s not the action of turning your printer off that cause’s problems, rather it’s the habit of leaving your printer off that will cause it to have problems. The longer you have your printer off, the higher the risk you will be at for your printer to experience those types of issues like clogged nozzles or banding in prints. If you find yourself in one of those situations mentioned above, make sure when you are able and safe to do so, that you turn your printer back on, and leave it plugged in so it can continue its scheduled automated maintenance. 

If you have additional questions about maintaining your printer or any technical issues that you may be having, please reach out to us at care.sawgrassink.com.

A couple of years ago, we at Sawgrass sat down and started a wish list of what we’d like to see in our Print Management software.  While Sawgrass Print Manager was a great program that functioned well, we knew that there were other features and functions that our customers would want to see.  Our goal was to create a program that met the needs of the greatest number of customers possible.  

I held multiple round tables on the topic; both with the various departments in the company and with our customers.  One of the things that stood out to me was that if I talked to five people, all five needed something in the program that the other four did not.  Everyone had preferences for how the program functioned that were slightly different.  Sometimes, these differences were opposites of each other.  

As we started to build our new Sawgrass Print Utility this need for different priorities for different customers was at the forefront of our conversations.  We needed a program that allowed customers to customize their printing experience.  From my viewpoint, the Sawgrass Print Utility does exactly that and is full of places where you can personalize your experience.

Many of these options can be found on the General tab under Settings in the Sawgrass Print Utility.   If you are using the Print and Cut functionality, which is available for the Silhouette Cameo 3 or 4, then the first two pieces of customization on this tab are for you.  You can check the box if you want to always see the option to apply registration marks.  This does not mean that cutter registration marks will be on your prints automatically, but the option will show so you can apply them when you will be both printing and cutting the image.  

The second decision you get to make is about your workflow.  If your print and cut workflow is to print and then immediately cut, make sure and check “always prompt to cut after print.”  This means that after you print, a box will pop up to select your cutter.  Your cutter settings window will then automatically populate in the Sawgrass Print Utility.  If your workflow is to do multiple prints before you cut, you want to leave this box unchecked.  Leave your print tabs open in the Sawgrass Print Utility and when you’re ready to cut, you can then select that job tab and change your device to your cutter.  The print tab will now change to a cutter tab and will display your cutter setting options.

This cutter function is one of the main reasons that jobs don’t automatically close after you print. While this is a great feature for customers who are printing and cutting from the Sawgrass Print Utility, it may not be something that every customer needs to do.   If you do not want to leave your job tabs open until you manually close them, click the box next to “close jobs after printing.”  If you select this option, once you hit print, your job tab in the Sawgrass Print Utility will close.  

For our Mac users, if you want the Sawgrass Print Utlity to automatically start up when you restart your computer, make sure and add a checkmark.  This means that you do not have to manually open the program when you want to use it.  Like SPM, it is optimal to always have the Sawgrass Print Utility running in the background so jobs can open smoothly.  The Sawgrass Print Utility automatically launches after restart on a Windows Operating System.  

As you’ve noticed, many of these settings options makes it to so that you aren’t seeing features that you will not be using. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you’re able to add features that you will be needing so you don’t have to go searching for them when you want to use them.  If you plan to use Spot Colors, you can enable this here.  If you leave it unchecked, you won’t see these options.  

Spot color allows you to change the values of a specific color, so it prints correctly.  For instance, let’s say you’re printing a logo that uses a certain shade of green.  If that green is not pressing correctly, you can print charts and press them to find the right values to give you the right color output.  The Sawgrass Print Utility will then know that when it prints that shade of green, it needs to adjust to the new values.  Want to know more?  There is education in the system on this function and it is our Support Articles as well.  You can also look forward to a future blog post on the topic!

The final options on the General Settings tab are around whether you want your measurements in the Sawgrass Print Utility to display in inches or millimeters.  Your choice will be your new default setting, but you can always change it here if needed.  

If you have multiple printers, there is a feature on the devices tab that will be very useful.  You can choose which printer is your default.  That way, every time you open the Sawgrass Print Utility, that device will show up. If you need to use one of your other printers for a specific job, you can choose it from the device pull down list on the main page.  

Page sizes are another spot where you can make PrintMate work best for you.  On the Manage Page Sizes tab, you can choose a default paper size.  This way, no matter what paper size you use the most, that is the one that is automatically selected.  If you are printing a job that requires a different size, you can choose it from the drop-down paper size list.  

On the manage page size tab, you can also create and add new page sizes.  You also have the ability to rename page sizes, even if they were ones that we added.  This is the same for deleting page sizes, you can delete ones we added or ones you added as well.  This helps you to simplify the paper sizes to meet your needs.  Don’t worry, restore defaults will bring them all back if you change your mind!

Send to Sawgrass Print Utility is the function that allows you to print from software other than the MySawgrass design tool to the Sawgrass Print Utility.  In the Sawgrass Print Utility, you can choose the settings that will be selected when you choose “Send to Sawgrass Print Utility” as the printer name in any program.  When the file opens in the Sawgrass Print Utility, these are the settings you would see.  Of course, if you need different settings for a specific job, you can always change those default settings.  You’ll also notice that in the Sent to Sawgrass Print Utility Tab, you can choose to automatically print.  With that selection enabled, when you choose “Send to Sawgrass Print Utility” as your printer name and hit print, your jobs will go straight to your printer with the settings you configured on this tab without opening in the Sawgrass Print Utility first.  

You’ll notice that on this tab there is an option to choose multiple printers.  If you have several printers and enable this option, the Sawgrass Print Utility will rotate jobs between the printers you’ve selected.  If you choose multiple printers and select automatically print, the system will do all the work for you and will rotate the jobs between your printers without you having to manually select the printer in the Sawgrass Print Utility for each job!

For our Mac users, you’ll be happy to hear that Send to Sawgrass Print Utility works for you as well!  This means you can print from any application to the Sawgrass Print Utility without having to export the files first.  

On the left side of your main Sawgrass Print Utility screen, you’ll see an area called “Quick Print Folders.”  Clicking on this allows you to configure your Quick Print Folder.  Our SPM users should recognize this feature; it works the same as Smart Folders, but with easier access to settings.  These folders typically sit on your Desktop.  You can drop ready files that you want to print in them and they’ll open in the Sawgrass Print Utility with the settings you chose.  The functionality is very similar to what you saw in the “Send to Sawgrass Print Utility” configuration.  You’ll choose your printer, your file settings, and if you want the file to automatically print without opening PrintMate for you to make changes to your settings.  

One thing that users often did not know they could take advantage of with SPM Smart Folders is creating multiple folders that can be used for different types of jobs.  For instance, you can have a folder where you drop mugs and a separate folder where you drop key chain jobs.  This keeps you from having to change the settings each time you print a different project type.  You have the same ability in the Sawgrass Print Utility.  Just add folders and configure them for the job type you’ll use them to complete.  

One new feature you’ll see with Quick Print Folders is you can choose how long files stay in the folders before auto-deleting.  This way, you can save files in the folder to re-print later or delete them quickly so you’re not using computer memory storing files you don’t need.  When I was in Tech Support, I had requests for both sides of this from customers.  It’s a feature that I’m very glad we added!

That’s it!  Most of the spots where you can customize the look and feel of the Sawgrass Print Utility to meet your individual needs.  It’s a lot, but hopefully it means that the program will work the way you want and need it to.  As always, if the program isn’t meeting your needs, or you feel we can make improvements, there are several ways you can get that request to us here at Sawgrass.  First, you can submit a ticket to our Care Team.  You can do this from right in PrintMate by clicking on the Support Button on the left panel of the main window.  In MySawgrass, you can click on the Lightbulb and submit Feedback there as well.  This Feedback can be about any aspect of your Sawgrass experience.  

I hope that as you use the Sawgrass Print Utility, you see that we listen to you, the customer, and make changes that improve your experience.  We want to make sure that our Print Management Software makes printing consistently easy and successful!

One of the first features in our new design tool that we hope users try out is our Custom Canvas feature. While there was a custom canvas function in our previous design tool, it had limited functionality with users being unable to save designs and be restricted to only using a square or rectangle canvas.

The MySawgrass design tool features a fully functional Custom Canvas that allows saving as well as both pre-made template shapes and the ability to add your own.

Custom Canvas is going to be a useful tool for you when you just need to print on a paper size and not a specific product shape. One instance where I would take advantage of this is a t-shirt. I find it helpful to try to fill the entire paper so I can get as large of a design on the shirt as possible. The other use for Custom Canvas is when we do not already have your product added to our catalog. Instead of waiting for us to load the template, you can now create your own.

Inside of the design tool, Custom Canvas is located at the bottom of the Select a Product screen. Clicking Open Custom Canvas takes you into the screen where you’ll configure your canvas.

You can use the Unit function to choose your measurement preference. Options include inches, centimeters, millimeters, feet, pixels, and meters.

Skip dimensions and bleed for a moment and choose your shape. You can keep the default square for square or rectangle canvases or choose the shape you need. We have a variety of shapes and paper sizes already configured under Die Cut Shapes. Common shapes for sublimation blanks like heart, circle, and berlin are included. This is also where you’ll find standard paper sizes like letter, legal, tabloid, A3, and A4.

If you’re not seeing the shape of your product, you can upload a template of your own. A few things to remember with this; you must upload an SVG file, and it has to be a single layer. If you download a template from dealers, these files often have defined bleed areas, print areas, and sometimes other areas as well. You’ll need to delete these before uploading into the MySawgrass design tool. If you do not have a design program where you can save SVG files, there are several online conversion tools like Convertio.

Once you have chosen your shape, you’ll set your measurements and bleed area. If you import a template, or use a preset paper size, the dimensions should be defined for you, but it is always good to doublecheck these measurements. The bleed area is useful to give you some buffer around your design area which ensures that if your print and blank are not perfectly aligned, or if your fabric stretches in the press, you are still guaranteed that your blank is fully covered with your print and you are not left with white edges. Once your canvas is ready, select Design Your Canvas at the top of the panel to start designing. Just a quick note, Save Canvas is for when your design is complete and you are ready to save and print.

One other thing we do need to point out is that custom canvas designs cannot be added to your MySawgrass store. Custom canvas is specifically for things that you are creating to save and print, not for products being loaded for sale in your store. Products that can be added to the store are curated by us according to availability so that we can set an appropriate base price.

We hope that you find the Custom Canvas function to be one that you use often and works for you. If you have any suggestions about how this feature can work better, please submit feedback from the feedback portal under the lightbulb icon in MySawgrass or open a ticket with our Care Team.

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