Hydro Dipping PVA foils for DIY-at-home Hydrographics

What exactly is the Hydro Dipping PVA Foil?

PVA-Foil (Poly-Vinyl-Alcohol-Foil) is a water-soluble, synthetic polymer. It is completely colour neutral, odourless and non-toxic.

The print transferred via water to the object to be Hydro Dipped is printed on the PVA-Foil.

The PVA-Foil absorbs water and then liquefies, but it is not affected by solvents such as the required Hydrographics Activator.

Why is the Hydrographics Activator needed in combination with the PVA-Foils?

The PVA absorbs water to liquefy, but the ink that is printed on the PVA foil is not water soluble.

This is where the activator comes into action!

After the PVA Foil has absorbed enough water, you apply the activator and the print and PVA-Foil will both liquefy completely.

The activator also provides an optimal adhesion of the print to the object to be Hydro Dipped.

By submerging the object through the liquefied PVA Foil, the print will transfer and stick to any 3-dimensional object!

So what happens to the PVA-Foil after dipping?

The PVA is merely the recipient of the printed ink, after it is placed on the water and liquefied it will have lost its purpose.

If there´s any residue PVA on the object after dipping, you can simply wash it off under gentle streaming water, leaving only the print on the object.

Can I do Hydro Dipping at home?

The simple answer is: Yes, you can! Anyone can do it as long as they have the right materials.

With the materials you find in our shop, you can easily start your DIY Hydrographics projects.

Apart from the materials that you can find in our shop you will need a reservoir to be filled up with water and objects that can be fully submerged in water.

Keep in mind that the reservoir should always be bigger than the object you want to Hydro Dip.

You can use a lot of different things as a Hydro Dipping reservoir, from a simple bucket for smaller objects to an inflatable kiddie pool for larger objects.

For a quick and easy start to Hydro Dipping we can recommend one of our many PRO kits.

The PRO kits include some very handy tools to get started with DIY Hydrographics

And it contains more than enough PVA-Foil to do some test dips first.

How difficult is DIY Hydro Dipping?

With the ease of use of our Hydrographics Activator

The high quality of our PVA Foils

And with the detailed manual included in every order.

Combine all this with the support of our team via Whatsapp, even Mr. Bean could Hydro Dip.

*Don’t forget to order our Hydro Dipping Activator, without Activator it is not possible to successfully complete your DIY Hydrographics project!