NEW ORDER

I picked up another order today!  Yippie!!  It is a "future" order but at least it is an order.  :)  The only bad thing is they want nick-names on the back of each shirt.  Yuck!  I have screen-printed player names ONCE before and it was not fun.  I had to use 7 different screens with 2-3 names on each screen.  The whole process was SO time consuming I said I would never do individual names again.

Luckily I have a heat press now so can heat press the names.  I will do an Internet search for heat transfer lettering.  Eventually I would like to purchase a vinyl plotter.  Then I could just whip up the names myself. :)  Being able to offer individual names and numbers is definitely a plus for business.  I would hate to turn away business but if I did not have my heat press I would either have to bid the job VERY high or send them to someone else.

There are many aspects of screen-printing but the good thing is you can always find someone who can do part of the process you are having a problem with.  If you don't want to coat your screens buy them pre-coated.  You can find someone to draw your art, vector your art, burn your screens and color separate your images.  Whatever you need, I am sure there is someone out there who can do it for you.

Jeanette

A Productive Week!

This has been a very productive week.  The shop is looking fantastic.  The new exhaust system is in and works good.  It sure was a pain in the butt figuring out how to do it.  Thank goodness I have seven brothers.  I know I can give them a call when I get stuck on something.  I am still working on the conveyor dryer project.  I called my brother Peder to see if he had any ideas.  He is very good at building things so I figured he could help me with my project.  He had a few ideas pop in his head while we were talking so hopefully we can come up with something.  I just need a temporary conveyor dryer until I can afford to buy a new one.

Now that my shop is set up properly I feel comfortable taking jobs.  I have started doing a little networking and already have a few possible prospects.  One particular job could turn into some big orders.   I will love the business but I still want to keep it low key for a few more months.  Once my designs are up and running I can commit more time for custom orders.

Later!
Jeanette

SCREEN DRYING RACK

Well, my plan for today was to build myself a screen rack but the weather here in Las Vegas did not cooperate with me.  Since I moved my screen printing shop to the garage I can't use my tools in there because of the dust.  I was planning to build my rack in the back yard but it is VERY windy and cold.  The cold is fine but I did not feel like having saw dust blown in my face and eyes.  The weather is supposed to be bad for a few days so my screen rack will have to wait.

At the moment, my drying rack is in the bedroom closet and only has four slots. 

This works fine most of the time but I have a total of 11 screens and at times I need to dry more then four at a time.  Things become very time consuming when I have to wait for screens to dry.  I also want to have all of my screens protected.  I noticed a small tear in one of my screens and I am sure it is from having to shift things around all the time.  The tear does not affect my prints so far but eventually I will need to have the screen re-meshed. 

I do not mind building a rack but it would be nice if I could just buy one instead.  :)

Screen rack from silkscreeningsupplies.com

Eventually I will buy one of these rolling racks but for now I will have to build my own.  :)

Thanks for checking out my blog!
Jeanette



 

RIGHT ON TRACK

I was really on a roll today.  My goal for this weekend was to have one design ready to go online no later then tomorrow.  I am right on track for that goal but I also finished four other designs in the process.  :)  Sweet!!  Once I started working on designs my creativity went into overdrive.  My screens will be dry in an hour or so but I will probably wait till tomorrow for printing.

All the screens I used today were 156 mesh.  I coated each screen with a 1 x 1 coat of DXP dual cure emulsion using the thin side of the scoop coater.   When I burned the first screen I forgot to put weight on top to hold the transparency tight against the screen.  The image turned out fine but I made myself slow down with the rest of the screens so I would not make that mistake again.  I burned the screens for 4 minutes using Ryonets RXP 20 x 24  Exposure unit.

I burned the screens 15 seconds longer then the recommended time but the emulsion on the ink side of the screen was a little slimy when I washed out the image.   From my understanding, that means the screen was not exposed long enough.   Hmmm!  Previous screens I had burned for the recommended time of 3 minutes 45 seconds were slimy, that is why I increased the exposure time for this run.  I will try increasing it another 15 seconds when I burn the next screens and see what happens.

Schedule for tomorrow.....PRINTING!
Jeanette

CHOOSING A SLOGAN/TAG LINE

I am constantly doing research on the business side of screen-printing.  It is great to have cool t-shirt designs but if you do not focus enough attention on the business side of it, you are setting yourself up for possible failure.

In my entry titled "Business Branding", I talked about creating a distinctive logo and developing a catchy slogan.  I loved my original logo but I knew something just was not right.  Realizing the importance of a company logo, I decided to change mine.  My new logo is awesome and I have received some great feedback.

My next challenge is to create the catchy slogan that will really grab attention.  Again, I have my original slogan, which is OK, but it is not perfect.  I found an article by Marcia Yudkin, in which she shows you 19 steps to creating your slogan/tag line.  Just by going through the first two steps, I have come up with a few very interesting ideas.  I will test my new slogans with family and friends and see what kind of feedback I receive.

I am sure I will come up with more slogans when I finish the rest of the steps.  Here is the link if you would like to read the article.( www.yudkin.com/generate.htm)   It gives some great insights.  I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks!
Jeanette

BUSINESS BRANDING

When launching a business, it is so important to get everything right the first time.  It saves you time, energy, money and possibly lost sales.  Sometimes mistakes are inevitable but if you do some research, you can eliminate many of those mistakes.  I have been doing some research on "branding" and I wanted to share it with you.

One of the biggest things to consider before launching your business is "Business Branding".  So what is "business branding?"  In an article by Chris Joseph, "A brand helps to differentiate your company from the competition as well as creates an image in the minds of customers and prospects."

A"brand" is the identity of your company. It is your company name and your logo. "Brand" is the way customers perceive your business.  It lets people know what your company stands for.  The first thing is to know who YOU are and what YOU stand for because it ultimately will reflect in your business.  Once you understand this, you need to take the appropriate steps to convey this in your "brand".

Your company LOGO is critical.  You want your logo to be as distinctive as possible.  In addition, you want to use your logo in ALL your business marketing and correspondence.  It needs to be on  your business card, letterhead, website etc.

Develop a catchy SLOGAN!  A catchy phrase or jingle will stick in consumers' minds.  A shorter slogan is better.

Use COLOR!  Colorful brands stand out more.  Color is very powerful and each color evokes a different response.  Do an Internet search on color and human reaction.  It is very fascinating.

Everything you do should tie into each other.  Your website should have the same design as your blog.  Your business card and stationary should tie into your website etc.  Consistency is necessary.

Business branding is very fascinating and definitely needs your attention if you want to set your business apart from others.

Thanks for reading!
Jeanette

VECTOR ART IS A MUST!!

Artwork is such an important aspect of screen-printing.  I believe it is the most important part of the process.  Taking a squeegee and pulling ink through a screen is easy but its the image you produce from this process that will make or break your business.  If you were not born with artistic ability, then the artwork part of screen-printing can be a long, frustrating and tedious process.  Do not fear my friends!  There is plenty of art available for purchase and for free.

One option when purchasing artwork is to purchase vector art.  Vector art is ready to go.  It has nice clean lines.  You can use one vector graphic for your image or combine the graphics together to create your image.  If you have a library of ready to go vector art, your designs are limitless.

I just purchased a vector art pack which has over 3400 vector art images.  It will arrive on Monday and I can not wait.   Having this art pack will benefit me greatly with custom orders.  There are so many graphics to choose from, I feel confident I will be able to complete any order thrown my way.

I found my vector art pack at silkscreensupplies.com for $99.  They are having an amazing sale on tons of screen-printing supplies, including vector art packs and clip art packs.  Having a library of ready to go art is invaluable to your business.  It is definitely worth the investment.  Check out the sale at silkscreensupplies.com....supplies are limited!

Thanks for visiting my blog.
Jeanette 

USING A WHITE UNDERBASE

Today I have been busy printing transparencies, coating screens, burning screens and washing out screens.  Did I miss something?  Oh yeah, blowing out screens.  I was down to washing out my last screen and I blew out the image.  Ugh!!  I had to start the whole process over again.  It was my first blow which is not bad.

I will be printing hot pink ink on black tote bags.  I do not want to print a ton of hot pink ink so I am going to do a white under base.  Basically I am printing the image twice, once in white ink (because color shows truest on white) and then a second time in hot pink.  The white under base will allow the hot pink to really pop on the black background.  I guess this could be considered a two color print because I will be using two screens and I must line up the image with my registration marks. 

I printed two transparencies for this job.  The first transparency was the original design.  I printed the image again on a second transparency but I did a CHOKE on the whole image.  What that means is you are choking your image back, making it a little smaller then the original image.  This makes registration easier because you have a little room to maneuver.

I have been confused as to what exactly a CHOKE, STROKE and TRAPPING means and how to do it in CorelDraw.  I searched on the Internet for months but could not find an answer anywhere.  I called Ryonet a few days ago and spoke to TJ.  TJ IS AWESOME!!!  Finally someone could give me an answer. 

The fastest way to do a CHOKE in CorelDraw is to place a 1-2 point outline around your image and make the outline white.  The outline goes half way inward and half way outward.  When you go to print your transparency, CorelDraw will not register the white ink.  So a 2 point outline will shrink you image by 1 point.  It was very fast.  I did have to play around with the size of the outline since some text was smaller then other text.

Time to coat more screens!
Jeanette

EMULSION - How to coat your screen!

I tried for eight hours last night to upload my first video. For some reason blogger would not upload it so I had to go through youtube. I was planning on a new video camera by now but I guess it will have to wait another week or two.


In this video, I was using a 20 x 24, 110 mesh wood screen, dual cure diazo emulsion and a scoop coater. The scoop coater has two edges, one wide and one thin. Use the wide when you want a thick layer of emulsion and the thin edge when you want to apply a thin coat. I have only used the thin side. I applied one layer of emulsion to each side of my screen and let it dry completely. After the first layer was dry, I applied a second layer of emulsion to the front side of the screen. (The side your image will be on) The second layer of emulsion allows more ink on your shirt. A third or fourth layer of emulsion may also be used. I have only used the two-layer method. Make sure your emulsion is completely dry before applying another layer.


LIGHT SAFE ROOM!


Emulsion is light sensitive so your room must block out UV light. I was confused with this when I started setting up my printing room. I looked everywhere for a light safe light but no one knew what I was talking about and I could not explain it to them properly. I called a photography place and they could get me a “darkroom"  light but it would cost $18. I finally went online to http://www.silkscreeningsupplies.com/. They sell the lights but I needed it how. Their answer….A BUG LIGHT!! I felt a little silly but I was new to screen-printing and had never set up a “darkroom”. Sometimes the little things make all the difference. So go to Lowe’s, HomeDepot or Wal-mart and buy a couple bug lights and you should be good to go.


On to my video!




Questions or comments are greatly appreciated.

See you soon.

Jeanette