The Ink Kitchen

ISS Long Beach 2017 starts this Friday!  We’re printing live at Hirsch, booth #1637.  See you soon…

News broke last week that a host of companies are now vying for bankrupt American Apparel.  Most notable among these companies is, of course, Amazon.  Aside from the obvious brand recognition of American Apparel, there is plenty of speculation around Amazon’s motivation to aquire this storied company from private labeling opportunities to supply chain and…

I went this past weekend to the Clark Art Museum and there were two unexpected connections there to our industry. The main benefactor of the Clark Art Museum was Sterling Clark. His family money came mainly from owning the Singer Sewing Machine company. The second connection was an interesting exhibit on woodblock printng in Japan,…

I’m sure you have some equipment that you fix yourself, and when you do you are sometimes in tight quarters or in an awkward position and sometimes you are following instructions being given to you on the phone. Here are a few tricks: A good cellphone is essential these days when you are making repairs.You…

We printed some very cool shirts for premiums for WMBR which is a community radio station (that I happen to have two shows on for the past three years.) It is a great station which is all volunteer, and I have done the premiums for them for about 25 years. Things are almost always done right…

We had a good year hear at the Ink Kitchen and have now had over 150K views of the site. We love interacting with other screenprinters and decorators and hope to see y’all in the New Year at Long Beach. The companies we work with are really awesome. The end of the year is a…

Time to clarify some things about the bankruptcy of American Apparel and the potential purchase by Gildan. Reports in many media outlets that Gildan has bought American Apparel are false, or at least not entirely accurate. They have bid on certain assets but you would not say that it is a done deal. 2. American Apparel retail…

In a move that moves me closer to going fully to DTS (Direct to Screen) I have started to clear out old art files. What a bad chore that would be so much easier if everything was digital only.  If you have lots of space like we do (almost 30K s.f.) you tend to save…

In a letter which the Ink Kitchen received that was a copy of that given by American Apparel to the employees it indicates that most operations in LA would cease after about 60 days. Whether any manufacturing or shipping would happen in CA is unclear at this time. In our earlier post today it was…

We could all take a lesson in marketing from SanMar & Hanes with this co-branded piece.  Over-zipper printing courtesy of some dude named Rick Roth 🙂