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…
The Ink Kitchen aims for the quick jab, a paragraph and a photo and back to your day. Occasionally a subject will deserve a longer form. A day long visit to American Apparel is such a topic. From time to time you’ll see these longer pieces, probably about once a month. You also are…
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,…
Printers have a bad habit of forgetting to heat their pallets before starting a print run. The underbase does not gel sufficiently and ink sticks to the back of the subsequent screens, chaos ensues. Start wiping screens. The result is that the first half dozen or more prints lack opacity and are grossly undersaturated, enough…
My good pal KC Hruby did the art on this piece. It is a great example of being creatively thinking about some artwork and how it can go on a shirt, instead of either just sticking existing artwork on a shirt, or even picking from an existing bunch of techniques. The artwork…
En honor al programa de TV de variedades Sábado Gigante bautizamos nuestros mensajes en español en The Ink Kitchen (La Cocina de Tinta) “Domingo Gigante!” Sábado Gigante es el show de TV en funcionamiento mas antiguo del mundo, 51 años y contando. Tiene una enorme audiencia en América del Norte y del Sur. El espectáculo…
I spent some time with the folks at Farm Fresh Clothing Co. in Sebastopol, CA yesterday. Great people, great printing, great ping-pong. Stay tuned for the full shop tour next week…
We printed this multicolor discharge print on the inside of the garment through a low mesh count and with a tremendous amount of squeegee pressure. As a result the ink saturates the substrate and bleeds clear through to the other side. What an easy way to take a clean spot color print and create a…
This week’s Throwback Thursday post– Our business of slinging ink is a sleazy one. The rag trade tends to the dishonest, the penny pinching, and the unethical. It has been mused that it came from the fact that screen printers historically plied their trade printing license plates in prison. I don’t buy that explanation, as…
