This question comes up often with screenprinters: why can we not hold detail? The answer is an idea similar to the art department concept of problems with source artwork where we say “garbage in, garbage out.” We are now are transferring that idea to print production. Basically, if you have a crappy stencil you have no chance…
We recently visited Anderson Studios in Nashville, TN. He has won more screenprinting awards than all of you readers put together. For printing the proof is not measuring dots or holding some line screen, the proof is what the prints look like. Andy Anderson’s prints are phenomenal and we’ll get into that in future posts.…
In the early days of my screenprinting we were totally operating blind. I didn’t even know there were shirts in printers folds and I bought thousands of bags of Hanes undershirts in three packs and in my basement “shop” I had giant stacks of cardboard and bags of plastic bags that I ripped open. We…
The humidistat photo comes from Andy Anderson’s darkroom. You would find something similar in ours at Mirror Image, both a similar device and most days (I hope) similar readings. As Summer is upon us in most of the country which means heat and humidity for most of us. As always keep your darkroom dark or…
As the political campaigns heat up, check your spelling. Note the enthusiastic but unspellchecked folks behind VP Biden, and their “FOWARD” message. I hear on two campaign stops they trotted out Drumpf, errrr Trump signs that had Tennessee spelled wrong. Once yes, twice oh no. More serious than an innocent spelling error, Bush in his…
This is a great shirt of Andy Anderson’s that was in the Impressions show. “Great shirt of Andy Anderson’s” is a phrase that has come out of many mouths many times. That dude can print. I hope to visit his shop tomorrow and post next week on what the Nashville King of Printing is up…
The Nashville ISS show is this week, I hope to see some of you there. Last year I had the distinct pleasure of visiting with Andy Anderson and seeing his shop in Nashville. He is a real renaissance man, with three distinct areas of expertise: motorcycle design and painting, underwater photography, and then to top…
A friend just printed some tanks. The customer sent this photo of a guy wearing it and said it didn’t look like the photo the customer had seen of the item. Of course it is a woman’s tank and this is clearly a guy, but the customer said it also was not good on women. Here…
Today’s post comes via Andy MacDougall, screen printer extraordinaire and all around good guy (and fun guy.) You can check out some of what he does at squeegeeville.com. I titled this a shop tour, but we are talking the reverse, this is about a shop that comes to you. In 2008, printmakers Delilah Knuckley and…
A few thoughts on Squeegees: Without good squeegee blades you cannot print well. They are absolutely essential. Don’t let them soak in anything, clean them you lazy… If you soak them they swell up and are not the same durometer any longer. Change them often. We turn them around then chuck them. I now believe…
