About the T-Shirts
- Hand silkscreening T Shirts
The first thing to be said about the Hand Silkscreened T Shirts is that they are not available from this site. This is due to the nature of their (hand) manufacture, which I will describe. They are, however available at various stores throughout Vermont, and directly from me at the Fine Art and Craft Shows listed in the Art Show Schedule.
I believe I am one of the last people in the country, and perhaps in the world, to commercially produce completely hand–silkscreened T Shirts. Here's how I do it:
First, I create a drawing. Then, using a special film which I can see through, I place a piece of film over the drawing, and hand cut the part of the film for the first color I'll use in the print. Then I adhere that piece of film to a hand-stretched screen. The part of the film I've cut allows ink to pass through during the printing process; the uncut part blocks passage of ink. I repeat this process for each color you see in a given T Shirt design.
When all of the screens are made, I am ready to print. I lay out 24 shirts at a time on the tables in my silkscreen studio. And then I walk around and print the first color on all 24 shirts. I use a fabulous, intensely pigmented textile paint which is water-based; so at the end of 24 shirts, I wash that screen in my studio sink, and then begin the process all over again with the second screen. Some of my T Shirt designs involve 7 different screens! And, a distinctive feature of my T Shirts often involves the use of a blend of colors, say to achieve the effect of a sunset sky. This is a very labor intensive - and paint intensive! - process which I have perfected over the years. You won't see many commercially produced shirts which use this blending technique. For me, the results of blending are one of the joys of the silkscreen process, and well worth the effort.
After a round of 40 shirts has been printed, and has dried for a day or two, they are ready to be "heat set". I use a big commercial dryer for this purpose. The heat actually locks the pigment of the paint into the fiber of the fabric, rendering the T Shirts completely machine washable and dryable!
A good source of my T Shirts is Apple Mountain, a Vermont–products store located in Burlington, Vermont. Their telephone number is 1 800 639 5052.
If you are interested in retailing these shirts, please refer to the Wholesale and Licensing page.