A super sticky situation

I am an amateur screen printer. I don't even own a professional set up (although...I do look through sites and sigh...and then quickly navigate away before my husband catches me) and I'm self taught. I DID, however, watch my more artsy friends self learn at the high school for the arts I attended...so I knew it was possible. If a sixteen year old could learn how, I'm sure I could take a stab at it.

So, I thought I had it all figured out. Churning out nice, clean images. But you know, there is always room for improvement. I wanted better product. Lasting product. So I decided to change inks and go with Jaquard Professional Ink. What it should be called is Jaquard professional sludgy tar. It's great when you get it on.....and a hint to all you out there - best to not do this over a weekend in the middle of a deadline on a ton of ordered shirts. If you decide to do so, make back ups for when the tarry substance sticks to itself...other shirts...you.....

Hey, but did I mention...when it's on it looks great???

In an effort to become a better screen printer I turned to the master. You tube. I tell ya, I'm sure you can learn to be a heart surgeon on that thing. So I watch. I study. I return to my screen printer with new ideas. I actually use the adhesive on my platten. I move my squeegee fast and at an 80 degree angle. I get crisp. I get succint. I get a shirt so stuck to the platten I cannot get it off with ink drying in my screen. According to "the experts" I have three minutes or I'm compromising the integrity of my next print. Sound a whole lot like heart surgery doesn't it?

So, I blow dry. I dry and dry trying to dry the screen so I can wrestle the shirt off the platten without remarking itself (again, why don't I do these things with shirts that haven't already been sold! Duh!!). I enlist my husband's support....aka listening to me swear. I get it dry enough that I can move it. I am tugging, I am pulling. I get the bottom of the shirt off the platten. I use my foot for leverage , placing it at the bottom of the platten. I heave, I get two more inches of shirt removed. I try to reposition my foot. I can't. I'm stuck. I get my other foot stuck trying to get my other foot free. Husband is incredibly useful, even though he is moving very slowly and my time is ticking away. Finally I get the shirt free. Only four more to go.

What have I learned? A. place shirt upside down on platten. B. NEVER use the adhesive made for this purpose. Use environmentally unfriendly spray kind that can be minutely applied until other option becomes clear.

The learning process in action. At least I can say I am fighting off Alzheimers right?

Photos!

To follow up the post about dyeing socks, we thought you might like some visuals.

Here are three bins of socks, all tied and dyed:

And, here are some completed socks, all matched up (obviously not the same ones from the bins above!):

And if you are not a person who enjoys the task of matching socks out of the wash, you should try with tie-dyed socks!  What fun it is to match up so many socks with the same colors - making sure it is indeed the correct pairing!

At our vendor event yesterday, we did sell some socks and hairbands (pictured in the photo on the left - under the blue socks).  As much fun as it is not to tie and untie socks, people liked having some smaller ticket items - and it lures them to our booth to see the rest of the tie dye fabulousness!  So, here we come, more socks and hairbands - and watch for underwear too!

Here is our set-up at the Park Ridge 5K yesterday.  It was a little windy and chilly.

Finally, don't miss our gallery - on the sidebar to the right under the heading Our Etsy Shop and Photos.  We have uploaded photos of many of our projects. 

Free Advertising and SOCKS GLORIOUS SOCKS!

Our first official venture - Weecycled Wardrobe gave us some insight into what stock sells. Basically, EVERYTHING except our turtle shirts. Good news - (I have also found a very cute romper that i think will be our new turtle venue - we shall see!) it sure would be sad to have to put down some designs that hadn't had a chance to live and thrive. AND we sold 17/52 shirts. Right - but those people are out for a bargain right!? They're not up for spending 14 bucks per shirt. We'll just keep telling ourselves that.....

AND commit to a new venue who won't take 45% of our revenue, BUT require us to take a new stance on our wares and make them ATHLETIC...HEALTHY....WELL. Yes, we have weaseled our way into the Health and Wellness Fair at the Park Ridge 5K Run- thanks to a very clever coordinator that really wanted us to get in and made some helpful suggestions....and thus we are dyeing socks. Do you have any idea how stressful it is dyeing socks??

No. 1 - You have to dye a lot of socks.
No. 2 - Because you have SO many socks to dye you have options. Enter most stressful point for me. DECIDING. What colours,  how many, how far apart to put the elastics BAHHHHH! Truly, until you become conscious of the fact that you are taking so much time thinking and worrying about sock allocation your heart rate really can sky rocket.
No. 3 - Mass production of socks when you seem to be having a bad dye day. Right, so you're not just messing up a shirt or two that you can pull some of your clever "shirt recovery tricks" on - these are multiple socks....that you might be wearing for the rest of your life. And your kids. And your relatives. Hmmm...socks in goody bags...not a bad idea...BUT ANYWAY...
No. 4 - Due to insane life, one has not taken the time to fully experiment with sock dyeing and thus becomes stressed simply because of the unknown and become plagued with worst case scenerio what ifs.

Bottom line. I sure hope tie dye socks are really popular.

SO, thanks to my dyeing of socks, and attempting to saturate saturate saturate...and getting the bottle hooked on some elastics and flicking it forcefully into my face I walked around with blue specks all over my face for an entire afternoon. I cut it way too close to consider washing my face before dashing out for swimming/gymnastics etc. so I pocketed some convenient business cards and thought - HEY - people see the freaky face - I can simply pull out a card and drum up some business. Can you believe NO one - asside from the two people that I  knew fairly well that I ran into and already know about Tie Dyeliciousness NO ONE SAID A WORD!! So my plan is to really get myself next time with multiple colour of dye, do a more dye than skin type thing, and THEN I'm sure I'll get some hits. Instead people must have thought I was just plain dirty and neglecting personal hygiene.

Recent projects - and our first vendor display

Life hasn't been all green lately.  Here are some of Jenn's fabulous, recent creations

Mother-daughter flower power / garden shirts:

Very cute cupcake apron:

Mother-daughter rocker heart shirts:

And, we have our first vendor display
We decided to purchase some vendor space at our favorite kids' consignment sale, Weecycled Wardrobe.  We have been preparing for this event for weeks.  It was what motivated us to officially launch the business.  We have shirts in many sizes and designs, and we are hoping to use the sales data as market research.  Here is our display - fabulous banner created by Jenn:

We do already have two more vendor opportunities on the calendar.  We look forward to spreading the tie dye colors and love!

Seeing Green - Literally

Some of our most recent jobs have been large ones - and involved GREEN!

With March looming and beginning, the shamrock shirt became quite popular.   In fact, we made about 26 shamrock shirts!!!  Here are Bridgette's kids sporting theirs.

Next came a birthday party for Bridgette's oldest son.  What better way to both advertise the business and cross those dreaded goodies / favors off the list than to make tie dye shirts?!  With Jenn screening and Bridgette dyeing, 16 soccer shirts were produced: green for the party guests, while the birthday boy requested a rainbow shirt:

Then it was on to Spirit Week for Bridgette's kids' school.  Gator Week at Garrisonville is a BIG deal.  So, I offered Gator shirts to some neighbor friends and made 17 gator spirit shirts - gator screened by Jenn (with the drawing assist by her husband!):

Now we might return to the regularly scheduled more colorful world of tie dye!

Once, there was a clean sink.....

Tie dye is a funny thing. It feeds your control issues. It allows you to choose a design, choose your colours, and choose your blank. It allows you to feel like you are thrifty. All those white background shirts from 5Ks, camps, and preschools are fair game (along with all the grimy underwear shirts your husband wears and you cannot stand to see walking around). And it makes you feel like a chemist. For someone that dropped science in tenth grade to pursue visual arts, this is a big deal.
BUT
Then....
You are never absolutely sure what your design will do until you untie it. You become obsessed with new designs and perfecting the one that got away (and go through your "thrifty" shirts in no time). And the fabulous chemistry that allows for intense, bright, mouthwatering colours also stains every single thing that comes into contact with it.
Tie Dye comes with yin and yang all sewed up.

Jenn's first tie dyeing project - "socking" stuffers.

It is also one of the only surprises left out there - for those of us who cannot stand waiting 9 months to find out the sex of our kids. Doing tie dye is like taking pictures on a roll of film. When you're trying new ties and new colours and playing - you dye, then you wait. And you wait. Sure, you can buy a whole new microwave and speed up the process, but where's the thrift and patience in that. Then you wait some more. Then you peruse appliance ads. And wait. THEN you get to open the little envelope folder thing and see if all those shots were masterpieces like you predicted. You wash and BAM - there's the first surprise...then you dry it, and BAM! A second surprise. The beauty of tie dye never gets old. Even after the 19th shamrock shirt - you're still begging for more!