Adventures in T-shirt land:from the workbench

I recently sent out an order to the owner of ISLAND GIRL in Catalina, California. I hope she loves her shirts and they sell well in her store.

I sent her 15 of these, three in each size, and matching arm warmers.

I also thought this would be an awesome Item for her next order:

My thought was that the wings would actually be in burn out, not silver and the shirt would be a light blue. It isn't a totally random suggestion, she has expressed interest both in wings and in the skully heart design.

I am hoping to also get another new wholesale account, it is for a store that specializes in Roller Derby merchandise! I think it would be really fun!

This is my new design of the week, both are brand new screens. The skully heart art is not new, just the screen. This screen is a little smaller than the other one and the colors are inverted.... Right now I have a bunch of screens I want to burn.

I want to do a smaller set of wings for onesies and children's shirts, as well as some text to go on the front. I also want to reburn a few screens that have very fine lines and are hard to print. I think I should invert more designs, especially some of the ones with VERY fine lines, like my revolver screen, and for new art I plan on drawing a dinosaur. lately that has seemed very important.

and something else that is VERY VERY IMPORTANT:

Pictures of my lovely daughter Autumn. She is turning 2 this weekend!

I promised her she could watch a cartoon or two if she let me finish this post, so I guess it is time to turn the computer over to her for a little while... besides, I have 8 dresses that are VERY quickly approaching deadlines.

See you soon!

♥Erica

Adventures in T-shirt land:New Packaging

First off, here are some pictures of autumn in her Halloween costume.

If you ask her what she was for Halloween she says "pumpkin face"

And every morning since halloween she wakes up and the first thing she says is "Halloween?"

So, this would usually be my workshop post, but I don't have many good "in progress"pictures. I am working on some new things, that aren't ready to be photographed, and then there are the same projects I have been working on, but the details are not very interesting, and there are a few graphic design things I am working on... which has been a little daunting. Sometimes I wish GIMP were a little more like photoshop, I am trained in photoshop- but alas, gimp is free.

One thing I am working on that I can show you is my packaging. I am trying to come up with a new way to package my items because I have discovered that what I am doing becomes very time consuming when I am mailing several packages a day.

Right now I am wrapping most of my orders in tissue, tying a ribbon around them

and putting a label on the back. My pillows don't fit in tissue, and I do something extra special for bearing necklaces. I use solid tissue most of the time, but I have not restocked since I am trying to come up with something new.

Since I usually feel like I am fighting time in the morning when I am getting my packages ready to ship, I am trying to come up with a professional looking way to package my items that takes much less time. I am pretty sure I have settled on shipping in brown paper bags with either my logo or any of my other designs screen printed on them, and then sealing with a thank you label.

how do you package your items to ship?

I got an email from the owner of stilo lifestyle today and I will be getting my first consignment check this week! WOOO. I also need to replenish some items, so that is awesome !

I hope everyone is having a lovely week!

xoxo!

♥Erica

Adventures in T-shirt land:from the workbench

This was supposed to be a Wednseday post, but I am a day late and a dollar short, as usual.

This is the project that has been consuming most of this week. It is a wedding dress for a friend of mine, and I want to fit it this weekend . I usually like to fit things much earlier but I couldnt even attatch the skirt until the whole inside bodice was created... so... I hope it fits.

All of the leopard print was screenprinted by hand... and took FOREVER, but I think it looks pretty awesome.

The front has a hook and eye colosure, but it is a fake and is backed with black satin. After I fit the dress I still need to put big grommets in the back because it laces up, and the same big grommets in the front because it is supposed to be a halter. I have not done much with grommets so I am HOPING I do not have any problems with that.

Last week I mentioned an experiment. It worked. I can create my designs on shirts in burnout.

umm... awesome. Like I mentioned, I have seen lots of burnout shirts with random splotches burned out all over it, but nothing like this. I am REALLY excited about it. It has been suggested that I patent the application, but I do not know if it is different enough from other uses of these chemicals to make a patent feasible, although, I did think about the possibility before someone else mentioned it to me.

Whatever. I am REALLY excited to have discovered this awesome new technique.

and here is my shirt deisgn for the week, actually printed on a shirt. I think it is kinda cute. :)

I also mentioned on Friday that I liked that shirt from dark cycle clothing... and I bought it. I love it. I cant say it is my favorite type of tee shirt, it is a little thick and boxy for my taste, but the print is adorable and I am sure I will wear it all of the time.

And the pictures of autumn:

Adventures in Knifeland: On the Bench

So Erica tells me that my title is lame and that I am stealing her "thing". But if you look back at my blog you'll see "the workbench" there first. So I don't care :)

I know that you don't see a whole lot of my work on this blog, but I tend to think of it as more "guy" oriented. However, I've been thinking about general marketability lately, and think that I should probably be aiming more towards kitchen knives and folding knives than the hunting knives that I have been making. That doesn't meant that all of these are kitchen or folding knives mind you. Just that I think it would be a better idea in general.

I'll go in knifological order here:

I decided that I didn't like the hand on my knife AR36

Not that it doesn't look pretty good in this picture (handle is coccobolo and brass), but it didn't feel right and the balance was all wrong. Believe me, that makes more of a difference than you might think. Pick up your favorite and least favorite knives in the kitchen if you don't believe me.

Anyway, I decided to remake it. It's not done yet, and I think that I might do some wood burning on the handle, but haven't decided what to burn yet. This is what it looks like now:

The wood isn't quite so fancy, but I think it feels waaaaay better. The handle is now fruiting pear and brass.

Next is AR39, which was a big Machete last time, but didn't quench right, so the edge didn't hold.

It's a lot smaller now. But it holds its edge.

The handle is sycamore and purpleheart.

Then we jump forward to the current knives.

First, a new big machete-like thing....

AR52

The handle is curly maple, and it's a pretty big knife - that's my hand, not Erica's in the picture.

And lastly we have a couple of knives that just came out of their second forging session:

I'm not quite sure what they will look like in the end, but I am enjoying making them.

Any suggestions?

That's all for now,

Adam

Adventures in T-shirt land: Thoughts from the workbench

SO,

One thing I have learned about my two year old, is that it is usually easier to let her make a mess and clean it up later than try to distract her with her own toys, which would also make a mess if she was interested, but she usually isn't interested in her own toys.

This was the case today . I received a package with some fabric in it and she really took to a fabric with anchors on it and ran around the house in her diaper playing with it. I got some striped fabric from www.etsy.com/shop/christiecottage that I think will look awesome with it. I also took down my tub of buttons and let her play with that... which she really enjoyed, and I am not looking forward to cleaning later.

speaking of Autumn, I got to make some cute things for her as well this week.

It started with a package of onesies that was marked 18 months but actually had 24 month onesies in it. So, someone ordered an 18 month onesie, I made a 24 month onesie, and was lucky enough to catch it before shipping the wrong size. Autumn is almost 2 and can wear a 24 month onesie, but I prefer onesies so I cut off the bottom and surged the edge to make a tee shirt. Way cute. I liked it so much that I made another one.

Autumn has food on her forehead, and moments after this photo it was all over her shirt, too... and I am not sure if you noticed, but that was the screen from the picture I put up yesterday, and of course, here is my first shirt with that screen:

Which is available now in my shop.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/59508212/wind-up-bird-tee-hand-dyed-and-printed

Now for something exciting! I just ordered a chemical. What it does is remove natural materials when you put it on your fabric and heat set it. I have been having a very difficult time finding burnout fabric like I use for my featherweight scarves, so difficult that I have actually removed many of them from my store because I wont be able to make them if someone orders them. This chemical removes natural materials from fabric and leaves the man made materials, so ideally, with a cotton poly blend fabric I will be able to make my own burnout material. I also realized that I can probably screen print my designs with this stuff... and that means I can burnout my designs instead of only printing them with ink... and that is pretty cool...

See you all later!

♥Erica

Adventures in T-shirt land:from the workbench

So, maybe adventures in tee shirt land isn't the right title for my workbench post since I do more than make shirts... I dunno.

Just a thought.

Speaking of tee shirts, on Monday I posted a drawing that I turned into a screen. Screen-printing is a different way to convey an image than most of the art I did before I started screen printing. Things can be complex, but are also simplified. Now that I think about it I could surely write a whole post just about this... I always love how something that looks very basic on paper can be really awesome on a shirt. I think my robot is pretty cute :)

I hand dye my tee shirts, which is an interesting and fun process, and I mostly do it so I can offer a wide variety of colors to my customers without keeping a ton of shirts in stock, which I cant afford to do and don't really have the space for. Unfortunately it can be a little messy, and I really need to run to a thrift store one of these days and pick up some cheap pots. Adam snapped this picture of one of the pots I've used recently for printing.

it reminds me of growing salt crystals... and that is pretty much what is happening here since I add salt to the dye bath.

I am working on a couple of dress projects for friends. This is part of the top of a wedding dress I am making for my good friend Missl Command. I couldn't find white leopard print fabric... so I screen-printed it. I am almost out of white ink so I am at a bit of an impasse. I still have to print most of the skirt.

This is the other project I am working on. I these are damas dresses for a quinceanera. I have to make seven of them, and all seven of them are almost to this point and I will be fitting them this weekend. It was fun to make the first one, but I have reached the point that I really am ready for this project to be over.

Besides, I want to be able to work on my own designs.

Most of my time this week has been spent filling current orders and getting ready to hand over a bunch of stuff to Stilo Lifestyle for my consignment section in her store.

I have four sets of coasters that just got sprayed with some stuff that makes the design permanent, which is awesome, but it is also flame retardant. I think the thing I like best though, is that it makes my shiny tiles matte.

This is what my serger looks like right now... totally covered in projects, organized by what color ink I want to use. Right now have pillow sets, bibs, scarves, card holders, arm warmers and a few secret items. Up in the front is my notebook of screens. I use photoez paper for my screens, which I absolutely love, and one of the reasons I love it is that I can keep ALL of my screens in a notebook since they don't have frames. Although, If they had frames I suppose Autumn couldn't flush them down the toilet... (and yes, she has flushed a screen down the toilet. )

and as always, it is nice to have autumn as my helper when I am working, even with screens occasionally getting flushed down the toilet.

See you later!

♥Erica

Adventures in T-shirt land: Thought from the workbench

Hi,

Do you want to win one of my awesome t-shirts? Please visit my friends blog and enter to win your choice of tee from my shop. You can enter here .

Well. It is Day three of working from home, and I am busier than ever. I am currently working on new orders as well as preparing items for consignment at Stilo Lifestyle in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I am trying to get a really good selection of items to take over there, and I need to reorder shirts from Next Level Apparel as well. I was kind of hoping to be able to order another type of shirt, like a long sleeved shirt or a burnout tee, but I will probably just be stocking up on white tees again. I made my priority to work on some damas dresses for my former co-workers daughters quinceanera, which is getting boring because I have to make 7 of the same thing, and I am not really getting paid for them, just for materials so I am having a difficult time pushing through. They ARE really lovely though.

This Tee shirt is going to be in an upcoming movie called "the Lucky One" I am not sure how visible it will be, but I am excited by the possibilities! Warner Brothers sent me a release form saying that they could use the tee on film... so I will probably go see that movie when it comes out.

Last night I dyed quite a few tees, and they all turned out really awesome with beautiful vibrant color and even coverage on the first try, for like four dye batches. I was SO surprised! This is not the first time that something like this has happened. It is amazing how experience teaches you things subconsciously. I have no idea what I am doing differently, I just know that the results are coming out more consistent than they were before, and I LOVE that. The dye batches I ran this morning are coming out better as well! The same thing happened when I started screen printing. I got somewhat inconsistent results, and then all of the sudden everything just became second nature and all my shirts came out better. Have you ever experienced anything like that?

I have quite a few fun new products I am working on in Caustic Threads, I am working on some small card holders, that my or may not make it to etsy. So far I have included them in a couple of packages as surprises. I am also working on some bike pouches, or hip pouches technically, as well as an extra special fancy vendor apron. I just launched a brand new item in caustic threads:

It would make an excellent gift :)

Ok folks, Ill see you tomorrow.

♥Erica

My Crowded Room

I thought i would share a few more pictures of my art room, which has recently become MUCH more crowded.

There is actually a method to this madness. I am using this table for screen printing and sewing right now. I keep hangers below the table for easy access while printing and blank shirts are folded on the file cabinet.

There is much less method to this madness. All the bins on the metal shelves are filled with different craft supplies ranging from polymer clay, to felted sweaters and wool roving, to paint, and jewelry findings. The dress form with the muslin on it has what I have draped for my co-workers daughters quincaniera. I am making her Damas dresses. There has actually been a third dress form added to the room since these pictures were taken. The duct tape form of my friend is in our coat closet. I am going to use the base for my designer form (that is the one that has the muslin on it) when I am working with that form.

this is one of my major additions, mentioned yesterday. I have really been enjoying working with my new serger. :)

And some pictures of the family:

Autumn and daddy working in the shop.

Cuddles!

New TODAY in my stores :

http://www.etsy.com/listing/52971060/roller-skate-tee-sz-juniors-xl

http://www.etsy.com/listing/52970502/sewing-machine-love-tee-misses-xl

http://www.etsy.com/listing/52969729/knitting-tee-sz-juniors-xl

http://www.etsy.com/listing/52963269/ivory-veil-with-facinator

http://www.etsy.com/listing/52962700/childs-roller-derby-tee-sz-56

Sorry I missed my treasury last night, will be back later for tonights :)

♥ERica

From the Workbench

I am not sure if it is really clear what is going on in these pictures but...

This dress is on my form right now. I am not sure what I want to do with it now. I usually design on paper so designing directly on my form instead of starting with a sketch and then transferring the idea to my form was a pretty new experience for me. It was fun though, because it was a much more free way to design. Usually by the time I get to my form I already know exactly what I want to make, and any tweaking is made only to make the dress function properly.


What I am running in to at this point is that I don't know where to go from here. I started without any ideas and I like what I came up with, but now I am stuck! I cant decide what I want to use for fabric, or if I want to go with a print or a solid. I know I want a stiff fabric that will hold it's shape, but that could be anything. I thought a polka dot would be adorable, but then an ochre or pink silk dupioni would be beautiful too.

Other than that, I am designing my logo for caustic threads. I know exactly what I want it to look like but so far my sketches have not turned out the way I want. I want a heart dripping on to a hand like in the corrosive symbol:
:

So, it would only be the hand, and instead of the test tube it would be a dripping heart. The hand I am drawing keeps looking too much like a sketch and not graphic enough.



Also, Autumn is starting to talk! She said "cookie" when we walked past the pastries during our last trip to the grocery store, so I decided that she really SHOULD have a cookie. Adam said she didn't need a cookie, which is true, but I am a sucker for her cute face and gave in. We picked a shortbread cookie that had a mound of neon green frosting on it.



Autumn REALLY enjoyed it.

And now I have several pictures that look like my beautiful baby ate Shreck. Priceless.