I had a meeting scheduled today with an artist but it had to be re-scheduled for Sunday at noon! I was really looking forward to the meeting to discuss what I need but the cancellation will give me more time to look over my designs and figure out which ones I want her to work on first.
So instead of meeting with the artist I used my time today to get the ball rolling with my e-commerce site. I have had my domain name registered with a hosting company for 2 years now but with so much time needed to learn the screen-printing process and graphic design I haven't had time to focus much attention on my website.
Today I decided to transfer my site over to Volusion and begin work on my official website. I have checked out some other e-commerce providers and Volusion seems to have what I need. My niece transferred her business over to Volusion last year and has nothing but rave reviews for them so I thought I would give them a try. Now comes the task of actually building the website. I am not really looking forward to the process. I would actually prefer to pay someone to build it for me but that is not in the budget right now. I will work on it when I can but until the site is constructed I will sell on etsy.
I am still having some issues with gaps in my colors. I thought I had the trapping and overprinting figured out but it is causing me problems. Right now I'm working through a computer graphics training disc from AdvancedArtist.com. Their training DVD is awesome. I am about ready to start the advanced training DVD where they go more in depth on trapping and overprinting. I can't wait to get to that part because trapping and overprinting is so important when you have multi-colored designs.
I learned a new and VERY cool way to make registration marks in CorelDraw. I am doing a short video on it because I have noticed others asking questions on registration marks in CorelDraw. I will post the video in the next week.
Thanks!
Jeanette
Hello Jeanette,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this post and would like to offer a few of my experienced based opinions.
I agree that Volusion offers a very nice, complete, and professional looking website solution for promoting and selling your products. I considered this company when I built my website, but decided on Webstarts using the free account to start then I upgraded to the next category with a low monthly fee. I am still learning the e-commerce process, but find the website tools fairly user friendly when building a site. I use Paypal buttons for purchases which works well for my needs.
I empathize with you for the frustrations you are having with gaps for multi-colored imprints. I do not use the trapping or choking features for my designs when my colors butt up against each other. I have found my problem with any gaps was due to one of two things. 1) my stroke technique. I notice you use a push stroke which I have tried, but prefer the pull stroke. If I push down too much when making my pull stroke, I have noticed a fine hairline gap on occassion, so I try to use only as much force as necessary to clear all the ink from the mesh onto the garment. Also, always use one or the other type stroke. Alternating between a push and pull stroke for the different color screens will create gaps 2) I believe the biggest problem with gaps lies in the registration ability of your press. I started out using a 4 color, one station press with no micro-registration. I achieved very good prints for multi-color designs, but spent 45 minutes or more registering a 4 color job to get perfect alignment with my registration marks and no gaps between colors when printing. A few months ago, I purchased a used 4 color, 4 station Hopkins International press that is in very good condition despite being 15+ years old. The press does not have true micro-registration with mico adjustment knobs, but after you clamp the screens securely in place, the heads have plates with knobs that you loosen then move the screens while still clamped in place to the heads, to make fine adjustments to register a multi-color job then tighten to hold registration. The alignment process with this press over my first press is like night and day. I can register a four color design in a few minutes. Not having to make fine registration adjustments by loosing the screen clamps and moving the screens and retightening the head clamps on the screen eliminated the movement I would sometimes experience with the Brown press that does not have the sliding plates. In my opinion, having micro-registration knobs on your press or the sliding plates version makes multi-color alignment much easier and gap free. You may want to discuss with Ryonet the micro-registration upgrade option for your current 4 color press.
I hope this makes sense and was helpful to you. My only regret with my recent purchase of the used Hopkins press is that I wish it had 6 color capability. I love the four stations, however, which is a definite plus for improving production efficiency and I highly recommend.
Just my thoughts. Keep up the great work!
Looking forward to your new website. Please announce when it is available. I have some friends, family, and coworkers who are real dog lovers that I'd like to refer to your site.
ReplyDeleteThanks