The Ink Kitchen

Just published this video to the Motion Textile site.  Our man Ben Jones of TBJ Productions did it again, this time with a slightly more artistic view of textile screenprinting.  Enjoy…  

A garment dyed shirt is a wonderful thing, comfortable and they come in beautiful colors. However, there are a few limitations that go along with these shirts and one is that you cannot remove the ink if you make a mistake. Best practices for garment dyed shirts: 1. Use a good emulsion 2. Get a thorough…

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement is stirring debate in the apparel industry much as NAFTA did in the 90’s.  This article from Southern California Public Radio talks about the potential impact on the apparel industry. And if you do not support TPP Zazzle’s got you covered.    

I feel very fortunate to get to spend some time with Andy Anderson at his studio in Nashville recently. Besides being one of the best screenprinters in the world for over thirty years he also is a master at creating motorcycles that are works of art, and then as if that isn’t enough, ranging far…

It’s never fun matching another printer’s work, specifically with full color prints.  You are kind of screwed in these situations because without provided seps and reliable engineering forms or without intimate knowledge of the other printer’s methods you are just making an educated guesses and if you say forget it and simply aim to improve…

If you didn’t already know, The Ink Kitchen is featured monthly in Wearables Magazine.  Check us out on page 55 of the June 15 issue.

What are you doing next Wednesday? Why not spend the afternoon (and evening) talking shop and shooting the…breeze while enjoying some Blue Ribbon Barbecue, Iggy’s Bread, and beer and cider from Sam Adams Boston Beer Company on us- The Ink Kitchen and Peter Rinning of QRSTs. We’ve got Greg Jensen from SAATI and Brian Lessard from Rutland Inks coming, too.…

We often get requests to analyze shirts for manufacturers. I can tell you that some folks like Hanes and SanMar actually do care about you printers out there and try to make sure their products can be decorated. They don’t always fully succeed but they are definitely trying hard and often with great results. Other…

We recently installed press #5 at Motion Textile.  I’ve affectionately nicknamed this 8-color MHM X-Type Plus “The Little Guy” (maybe I was thinking of that Portlandia sketch?). A few thoughts on going small with this new install: Sleeves The majority of sleeve prints that we run are very simple (2-4 spot color) prints with a flash or two.  We…

No, I’m not talking about too many hats in the literal sense, i.e.: we’ve got 3 days to embroider 10,000 caps with only 12 embroidery heads to work with.  Been there, done that. Here I am talking figuratively about wearing too many hats and if you are anything like me you are in fact wearing too…