When I was a wee bit younger, I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by some pretty incredible and creative people. I rubbed elbows with the creative elite and I somehow survived. One of my more fond memories was the day I accompanied one of the famed artists to an artist's fair. There were two reasons that I was invited on this trip...1) Moral support and 2) I was the only one who had a car...So, there was really only one reason why I was attending this extremely esoteric fair of egos, inflated and deflated alike. Whilst my creative counterpart went to frolic unleashed in the Crayola Forest, I was left unattended to wander through the other parts of Candy-land hoping that I may find some small model or craft...a choking hazard of some sort. Unbeknown to me, this would be a day where I realized that I, too, in fact, had a creative element and, more importantly, I had just found a clear outlet to my creativity. This was the day that I found the 4 Color, Screen Printing Machine.
For a measly $300, I made my purchase of the 4 color print machine with aspirations to conquer the T-Shirt world. There was soon to be an onslaught of my designs on t-shirts all over the world. My inescapable message would be heard across the land! From chest front to shoulders and back, the world would carry my message, my voice, my credo...
The unfortunate realty soon hit when I realized (back then) that I really had no idea how to operate and work the 4 Color Screen Printing machine. I didn't realize, either, that I was short not only knowledge...but more equipment. Emulsion? CYMK? Squeegees? Dark Rooms? Like most of my little projects and adventures things began to get difficult and my eagerness and enthusiasm for becoming the next t-shirt tycoon were beginning to succumb to the reality that I was never going to get this business going.
The good news began when my creative roommates began doing some research and eventually (through a lot of trial and error) began printing some decent t-shirts of their own. By now, I was pretty much out of the mix. I had long since abandoned the equipment and didn't really put any money into the fine tuning, the new equipment or all of the little supplies along the way. I did, however, show in times of the print to put in a little elbow grease to help with some orders when it came time. My friends took my dream from me and gave it a good run. Years later, I would leave the U.S.A and head to warmer waters following other Sirens. What became of those friends over the years, I'm really not too sure...I know one has art shows in Japan, a cartoon that is syndicated and had his own line of Hallmark cards...you know...successful.
Two months ago, a friend of mine adopted a small storage unit near the beach in Central America. An odd prize, I know but it's all too common to inherit things with the transient travelers of the third world. In this little, unlocked shed lay what looked like some sort of helicopter. No one really knew how to identify this odd looking contraption but someone had heard that it was a machine to print t-shirts. The town consensus came up short and, eventually, the news came to me that there was an unidentified printing object near the per. Upon inspection, I realized that, in fact, it was a rough looking, 4 color printing press complete with flash oven and some frames. It had been nearly 12 years since I had encountered one of these creative beasts and they always seemed to sneak up on me in times when I'm feeling creative and open for new adventures.
A few days of sanding and painting, picking up some basic supplies from a company in the capital city and reading a few articles, I decided it was time to seriously start printing some shirts. No support group..only armed with the internet and a small budget (which was sure to dwindle) I began the process of printing t-shirts with a 4 Color Screen Printing machine. This blog will hopefully show some of those new to screen printing some of my trials and errors. I've been let down by the internet...I wasn't able to really find a simple explanation of printing t shirts. All the articles I found used jargon unknown to me...I hope that those who partake in this blog will find simple language, coupled with simple technique and achieve superb results so that your designs and your message can be broadcast on the paid, personal sponsorship that is the famed T-Shirt.
Good luck,
The Screening Banshee
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