Nine recent questions I have received whether on forums, calls, or at shows: Q: What is the standard over/under on good shirts? A: You are free to make up whatever you want, but we usually tell people 1.5% per location is the industry standard. 300 shirts printed two sides on customer supplied goods means 9 shirts…
To “discharge” print a shirt is to use “discharge” ink and get the dye in the shirt to be neutralized. You add a catalyst to a specific type of ink and in the presence of heat and water the dye basically goes away. Only cotton discharges and not all cotton dyes discharge. We test shirts…
This is the third post of our pre-show Ink Kitchen advice on folks to check out at Long Beach ISS show Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week. Come by The Ink Kitchen “Know-It-All” booth #157 which will be located on the far left side of the show floor. We have some cool stuff for you, experts…
Q: Where does the image go on the shirt? A: Where it looks good to the customer. I know some shops have elaborate ways to decide where an image gets printed on a shirt. I know some customers try and give very specific measurements as to where they want their images. My advice is to…
We have spent years experimenting with foil on shirts. Rather I should say that we produced actual jobs with different foil applications and always achieved great results. However, in almost every instance we had to do a lot of “tinkering” to get those good results. I finally feel we have dialed in on a very simple process which delivers awesome and consistent results. Here…
I love simple yet effective printing techniques. Overprinting semi-opaque inks creates a level of transparency which reveals a percentage of the underlying color. It’s simple, but not as easy as it seems. A surprising amount of consideration went in to determining print order, flash positions, ink formulations, etc., to pull-off the effect.
A good customer recently sent me a quote request for a large volume program. Due to the size of the program, pressure from the “end user”, and because it was “commodity printing”. I was told that the job was going out for bid and that I needed to be very competitive. Being put in a bid situation is…
We’re pretty high-tech around here (well, at least by textile screen-printing standards). I’d love to say that our screen coating methodology follows suit and show off pics or video of a bitchin’ auto-coater, but I can’t. When it comes to screen coating, we still do it the old school way. It’s not that I don’t…
Incredible quilts from old metal t-shirts. I’ve seen quilts done before but nothing even close to this creative. The Huff Post mentions the quilter’s “ability to turn “your grandmother’s sewing circle” into a celebration of vintage tattoos, the occult and motorcycle gangs. Blending, as he puts it, B-movie horror film style with the delicate intricacy…
Most retail lines understand the value in premium garments over basics and will thusly charge accordingly (think hoodies over tees, etc). Why is this not so with printing? We all know that it requires more work and costs more to produce a full color print over a single color print and most of us charge accordingly…
