The Ink Kitchen

Spent some time walking the show today, paying special attention to decorated apparel of course.  Some good, some bad, some great.  I’ll spare you the bad stuff…                      

Yeah, Hanes is a sponsor, but they were a preferred vendor long long before that. It is interesting to see Hanes which is probably the most “established” shirt brand be at this point one of the most cutting edge in terms of fabric technology, screenprint friendly tools, and product development. I have a new Nano…

SGIA and Sourcing at MAGIC collaborated to put on The Innovation Zone.  It’s a great opportunity to share the decorator’s side of the industry with buyers, designers, manufacturers, etc.  Here’s a look…                         

Today we skip our usual “Misprint Monday” post and instead opt for “MAGIC Monday”.  No, this has nothing to do with David Copperfield or Criss Angel.  I’m talking about MAGIC Market Week in Las Vegas.  MAGIC is the gathering place for the apparel industry and I’ll be there representing our side of the industry on…

Algunos comentarios tras el post de ayer de Tom sobre la goma: – La goma (squeegee) es probablemente el elemento más subestimado en casi todas las tiendas que he visitado. Puede arreglar muchos problemas pero es casi imposible hacer una buena impresión con una mala goma. – No confíe en la compañía que fabrica su…

A few comments  of my own after Tom’s longer post on squeegees yesterday. –       Squeegees are probably the most underrated item in almost every shop I have visited.  You can overcomes many problems in a shop, but it is almost impossible to do good printing with bad squeegees. –       Don’t trust the company that makes…

It used to amaze me how little attention printers paid to the all important squeegee.  Today it seems that more printers “get it”.  The use of triple durometer squeegee is commonplace in print shops as are squeegee sharpeners and I even hear printers talking about replacing squeegee blades on a regular basis (what a concept!).…

In honor of my post on American Apparel, here is my TBT post from my old blog, musing on procrastination and on equipment. It was inspired by head manufacturing dude at American Apparel Marty Bailey. Fact: We have one of the most reliable presses ever built, an MHM SP4000. The SP3000’s and SP4000’s we have…

We’re expanding Web Wednesdays to cover not just great websites, but also great web technologies and tools that are useful to apparel decorators.  One of my favorite tools online is What The Font by My Fonts.  Whether you are involved in the design process or not, as an apparel decorator you will inevitably find your self…

I spent last Friday with the folks at Farm Fresh Clothing Co. in Sebastopol, CA.  More than a print shop, Farm Fresh is a custom clothing company. They have complete control over the design of their apparel blanks to hand-drawn graphics to printing technique.  The quality style, design, and branding, established by Owner/Founder Matt Morgan,…