I printed a really small run of these cowboy t-shirts a while ago but never posted about them. They’re a collaboration between me and my roommate, she did the cowboy, I did the rope lettering. The first run sold out really quickly, so I will be printing another run of these soon.
After a few months off, I’ve been screenprinting quite a bit this last week, the results of which I’ll be showing most of soon, but to kick things off, my buddy Michael Parich and I screened these shirts for our mutual friend Joel Domreis, who runs Courier Coffee Roasters, and roasts some of the best coffee you’ve ever tasted, and if you’re in Portland, will deliver it by bike. The design is from the stamp that Joel designed and stamps on every bag of coffee he sends out.
I’ve been super busy with end of semester school work as well as getting ready for an upcoming art show, but nothing’s really in a state to show these days. Luckily, these “Make Music” shirts I designed for Tender Loving Empire are finally for sale online. One of the models is actually a friend of mine and she had no idea it was even my shirt until she saw it for sale, weird how that works out. Plus, check out that rugged redbeard on the other model. TLE sure knows how to pick ‘em.
They only list size large for sale on Etsy, but they have other sizes, just ask.
Men’s “Make Music” T-Shirt
Women’s “Make Music” T-Shirt
Also, for you book binding geeks out there: my trusty bone folder finally entered retirement after being slowly chipped away from going over stapled comic spines time and time again, so I ended up buying a horn folder, as in made of horn not bone. I hadn’t heard of them before, but they are supposedly stronger than bone. It does the job, and is more badass due to being carved from a black horn. My books will be 14% more evil now.
Jared Mees of Tender Loving Empire holds up my “Make Music” shirt design which they just released. It’s the first two-color t-shirt that TLE has ever printed! It’s blue and bright orange on cream American Apparel tees.
Right now it’s only available in the store (NW 18th & Lovejoy in Portland), but it will soon be in TLE’s Etsy shop.
Also, look over at the sidebar to the right (if you’re on the main page). I added little icons for all my important links! I’ve been wanting to do some updates to the site for a while, but I don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll probably be doing all my updates step by step as I can find the time. Anything else you’d like to see changed?
There was a bit of interest for these t-shirts at APE the other week, but I finally put them up for sale through my Etsy store.
Available in sizes small-XL for only $15 on Etsy!
A big thanks to everyone that voted in yesterday’s poll. Even though a majority of you said you liked the one color design as much, if not more, than the two color, I decide to challenge myself and print the two.
Since I don’t have an actual multi-color t-shirt press, I used the same registration method I use for paper, which is much less exact on t-shirts, but I think the slightly off-register look kinda works for this design. The one in the photo is pretty representative of the average level of off-register.
I’ll put these in the store after I get back from the Alternative Press Expo on Monday, but if you absolutely must have one now, if you Paypal me $16 (shipping included) to bigtime@robopocalypse.com before 8pm (PST) Thursday, I will save one for you and ship it once I get back. I have 2-3 shirts in each size from small to XL. Be sure to tell me what size you need. They are printed on heavyweight Gildan tees, which run larger than say an American Apparel.
It’s a pretty small run, so if these prove to be popular, I’ll probably reprint them, with a few one color versions too, the next time I order blank shirts.
Speaking of APE, if you’re going to find yourself there this weekend, make sure to swing by table 202, where I’ll have comics, prints, t-shirts, buttons, to-do lists, journals, and whatever else I can cram in my bag and still fit on an airplane. Say hey!
There will be no Typo Friday tomorrow because I will be on my way to San Francisco.
I’m preparing to head to San Francisco for the Alternative Press Expo (Table #202) this weekend, and the last thing I want to get ready are a new batch of t-shirts. So, it’s poll time! For the purposes of this poll, let’s just say that everyone reading this right now would definitely buy the shirt above with the two-color shark design… With me so far? Good.
I came upon this one color version when I accidentally turned off the blue layer in Photoshop and really liked the way it looked, so I want to know what you think; if you were willing to buy the two-color shirt, would you be just as interested in this one color version instead?
I’m curious because obviously the one color version would save me a lot of time if it’s just as cool. Even if you would never be caught dead wearing this shirt, vote as though it were something you would wear; I’m just looking for an answer to the one color or two decision.
Tender Loving Empire asked me to do a music-related shirt design for their new fall line of tees. TLE has a handmade aesthetic to a lot of the products for sale in their shop, and I’m a big fan of DIY music, both recording and instrumentation, so I wanted to take that concept into my design; with each “instrument” looking like a hand-sewn patch on the shirt. The patch below will be printed on the back of each shirt.
PLUG FOR A FRIEND: My roommate, Meghan Mitchell, just launched her very first Etsy shop! She has a handful of small etchings and gouache paintings up to kick things off, and all are under $10 right now! meginvasion.etsy.com
OK, so I have like a handful of blank, army green t-shirts doing squat right now except taking up space in a box. Stumptown Comics Fest is less than two weeks away, and I kinda want to knock out a new t-shirt before the big event, but I’m not exactly sure what to print. Anybody have any killer ideas for me?
This design was one of the more popular ones when I had the t-shirt poll a month or so ago and I finally got time to print them up. Two color shirt printing without a press is simple when there’s almost no registration necessary! The white is discharge white (see video below) and the text is red on the black shirts and a kind of bright burnt orange on the army green shirts. I’m totally diggin’ on how these turned out. They’ll be up in the Etsy store this weekend sometime, but if you absolutely must have, email me, they’re available from small to 2X in both colors.
This is a short, time-lapse video of me curing the white discharge ink with a heat gun. You can see it starts out sort of gray, but as it reaches a certain temperature, an additive in the ink leeches the original black dye out of the shirt and re-dyes it white. It makes for really clean whites and a very soft shirt because it’s not a load of heavy ink sitting on top of the fabric. You can get liquid pigments to add to a neutral base discharge ink to dye a shirt any color you want, but all I have is white at the moment.
(Oh, and if anyone’s curious, the heat gun noise was boring so the music is a clip from a band I used to be in. We pretended to be cosmonauts and all of our songs were about space adventures!)