Wow, what a nasty week it has been. Where do I start? Well, the first speed bump was my printer not wanting to work. Luckily it was my Lexmark and not my Epson 1400 but it has still held up my work. Next, the artist I contacted decided she did not have the time to do my drawings. Hey, life gets busy and I totally understand. Unfortunately that has also slowed down my progress. I have another artist in mind but it will take time to contact them and the cost for each drawing is twice as much. Bummer!!
My computer has had some issues over the last couple months and now it is at the point where I am unable to work on it for very long before it gives me the "blue screen of death"! So I am on the hunt for another computer. A brand new computer is out of the question at the moment but I found a place to get a rebuilt one for under $400 which includes the tower, mouse, keyboard and a NEW 18" monitor. It will certainly be an upgrade from my tiny laptop screen. A new computer is not in my budget but I am dead in the water without it.
I have still managed to make some progress despite all the speed bumps. My website is now hosted with Volusion. I was a little stressed because it was about to expire with my last hosting company but luckily the transfer went smoothly and just in time. I won't be able to work on the website until I get the new computer but at least I know my domain name is safe!
Between my computer crashes I have been doing some final touches on 14 designs. I am very excited about one particular design in the works. I have only printed with plastisol inks and this new design I want to do with discharge ink. Discharge printing is done mainly on dark garments. It is pretty much like bleaching your design into the shirt but you can also bleach color on a dark shirt. The effect is so awesome and it was one of my favorite printing techniques I learned at the Ryonet seminar I went to last August.
It is going to be a challenge to do discharge since I only have a flash dryer. It is recommended to use a forced air flash dryer or forced air conveyor dryer but both of those pieces of equipment are WAY out of my budget. The forced air flash dryer runs well over $1,800. It is possible to do it with a heat gun since the heat is forced out like a hair dryer but it will take SO long to cure a shirt. Discharge cures between 300-320 degrees for 2-3 minutes. Since the heat gun only emits heat from a small source an 8" design would take forever. The design I am working on is a full frontal design. Yikes! It will take me twenty minutes to cure one shirt. I am going to do some more research and see how it will work with my little flash dryer.
Jeanette
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