The Ink Kitchen

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…

We recently had an order returned due to placement issues.  The printing was “crooked and off-center”.  Upon review of the returned goods we were able to ascertain the real issue… Torquing occurs in the manufacturing process and is most pronounced on non-tubular garments constructed from lightweight, stretchy fabrics (in this case a tri-blend).  The difficulty…

In 2010 I called this post Hot Market Printing: Yankees (or Saints) Win! Same story this year really as we have another very good Quarterback Russell Wilson who was said to be too short. We have the same printer story as some shops in Seattle or Denver tonight on Superbowl Sunday who will be very…

We get a lot of questions, from both customers and printers, about printing over seams, off hems, over zippers (zippers to be covered in a future post).  “can you do it?”, “how do you do it?”, “how do you maintain an even ink deposit?”.  Based on these questions and personally witnessing some really bad work…

This is a post that I first did a couple years ago about a disastrous problem called ghosting. Here’s our throwback Thursday version. Ghosting is a bit subtle or is going on hidden to the eye under the printed shirts as you stack them. If you don’t watch it you will have piles and piles…

Yesterday we started a new weekly feature called “Mis-Print Monday” where we celebrate the positives that can come out of the worst of circumstances.  Today we start “Tee-Riffic Tuesday”, where we share a feel-good success story… aaaah.  I’ll start it off with one straight from the heart of yours truly: Last spring the Marketing Director…

A big shoutout to Mike Parker of The Brand Design Co. (Claremore, OK) for submitting these photos showing successful dye migration mitigation.  The top photo shows a print utilizing two base layers of Rutland Super Poly White which, while formulated for printing on 100% polyester, was not enough to block the dye migration on this very difficult substrate.…

Mirror Image makes and prints an ink for t-shirts that is organic and so safe you can eat it.