It's been up and down this year. This month was sloooooowww! Really slow.
But... I invested in some used newmann rollers, bought some tension meters, practiced on simulated process and gradient halftone color seps and film burning, stencil prep, coating techniques, etc. Had some time to experiment on a lot of technical and technique stuff during the down time. And it's paid off BIG. Big for me in the long run.
We have been trying to master the techniques used to print high-end tees you see at shows and on the store shelves for years on end.
I think I finally cracked the code.
Did a 4 color on black that came out absolutely awesome! Never did a simulated process print with that much detail and sharpness and color!
Then today I did a 2 color Bob Marley...
Wow. 1 hit white-flash-cool grey. The brother jumps off the shirt! You can see every hair in his dreds and mustache, the wrinkles in his forehead.
It's a black and white image with very subtle tone shifts. The grey makes it come alive. The tight mesh really makes a difference.
Bottom line, don't get shook when the money is not coming in, there's always next month, next year, if you love what you do and strive to keep perfecting your craft.
Somebody's gonna pay me good for what I've learned this month, even though we lost over 4 grand.
Freedom ain't free. Keep it spinnin'.
Re: Build For The Future While You're Broke Today.
Hi Ridgely,
I'm sorry you had a poor month but very glad you salvaged something from it.
Your bad month hit you by surprise but here in the U.K we know our bad time is coming but at least we can plan for it.
The whole of the U.K has a cold winter whereas parts of the U.S stay warm!
I started out Screen Printing my shirts but quickly found out that cutting vinyl was a more suitable method of decorating my designs.
During this summer I have established that I could possibly make more profit next year IF I do things differently!
I have made the decision that I am going to use the Winter here in the U.K to learn how to produce my own plastisol transfers!
With some of my 'hard earned cash' I have purchased a print table with a vacuum bed, now I am just waiting (almost wishing!) for things to quieten down so I can get stuck in!
Last winter was very tough for us, this year we have that knowlege! Through this summer we have added printing cotton tote bags and we are also now making button/pin badges also, both of these items are not dependant on the weather and should get us through our lean times.
I guess the moto of our story is the same:
At some times all of us are going to find that we have spare time on our hands but we should use this spare time constructively!
I hope things pick up for you next month.
Phil
__________________
I don't suffer with insanity...I love every minute of it!
Re: Build For The Future While You're Broke Today.
You may know my brand new Nikon D90 got stolen last month... so I was stuck on taking good photos, but.........
I have a new camera! Not a Nikon, but it'll do for now. I'll post some pics tomorrow.
Re: Build For The Future While You're Broke Today.
Next I want a good exposure unit. I deserve it.
I need a msp3140.
My screens come out good now. With a better unit-
Everything is in that underbase screen. And the color separation that the films are printed from. That underbase channel needs a lot of subtle tweaking.
When you burn that screen, you automatically know what you're going to get when you develop it.
I know I don't capture as much detail using photopolymer.
The UDC-2 is a beast for me. It will hold every single dot.
The tight mesh controls the ink so we have very, very little dot gain.
Re: Build For The Future While You're Broke Today.
We use our slower months to research and develop as well. It sucks to be slow, but when your motivated to become better, then that instinct takes over and you do exactly what ridgely has done. We used some of the techniques talked about all the time and the results are so much better by implementing sublte little secrets that you wouldn't think would make that much difference. Something as simple as one more coat of emulsion on a screen will turn an average print into a perfect white print that you never thought was possible with your equipment. 5 more newtons of tension make the difference, 20 more/less microns of stencil thickness, 5 degrees of squeegee angle, all the little things add up and turn you from an average printer into a master printer. That is what we all want to achieve right? Why put yourself through the body aches and mental pain if your not ever going to reap the rewards.
Re: Build For The Future While You're Broke Today.
Hey Ridgely,
They all look great, but I'm most impressed with the last "Cool Grey" one. What are the specs you used for film output, what colors, what mesh and how many newtons?
Re: Build For The Future While You're Broke Today.
Yep that cool grey design is the one that got me excited. You should see it in person.
I ended up using an underbase white and a cool grey screen for the shadows and tones.
230 mesh- stretched to 38 ncm.
It printed best with a underbase-flash-underbase-grey rotation. If I were going to do production, I would have added a subtle highlight white screen or light grey instead. I avoid revolving for production.
The key is in the subtle gradients- tricky to get subtle transitions in photoshop using spot color channels.
Also, I learned how to merge channel info- example- take one channel and multiply it to another... it's sooooo powerful. That and the curves menu allow you to tweak very subtle tone shifts.
Build For The Future While You're Broke Today. 
