Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

Category: Whales

whale tees!

urgent news alert:
i am obsessed with grapefruit.
thank you, that is all.

whale screenprint tees, all in a row

victory!

screenprinted whale t-shirtI must say that screenprinting is one of the most stressful arts I choose to dabble in. The entire time my mind whizzes through “oh no oh no i moved it wet paint! ah!” Of course, I lift the screen and everything’s fine and lovely and crisp and smooth and it’s all worthwhile.

I printed five shirts today with this lovely shade of blue… it’s almost turquoise, the second picture is more accurate color-wise.

I can feel my 14-year-old self telling me how awesome I am right now. Seriously, five years ago screenprinting seemed impossible, something I’d never try. Now I can do it, and it’s delightful in its hectic manner, and I just feel so cool.

screenprinting and such

forget negatives.
slurp, spongelike, from life’s goodness,
a nectar so sweet.

staple gun and screenprinting

Yesterday was just so blatantly gross outside that I needed to rebel against it by making something extraordinarily awesome. Something out of my ordinary, something to say, “ha, sun! i can be creative without you around!”

So I pulled my box of screenprinting goodies off my shelf, wiped the dust from my frame, and began stapling. I ran out of staples halfway through, but after an hour long staple quest and an exasperated lunch break I was back in business.

screenprinted whale - first attempt, on paperMy design features a whale (shocking, i know) spouting hearts. The whale will sit at the bottom corner of the tee, with the largest heart ending up at the top center of the tee, not far below the neckline. I did a few test prints today on brown paper and am excited but nervous about printing the real t-shirts, an event that may take place tomorrow morning after church.

Before Christmas I screenprinted 100 shirts, front and back, as commissioned by a friend for his band. My facilities (dorm room and bathroom closet) were not optimal, and with schoolwork and finals approaching, it was nerve wracking, to put it lightly. Somehow I’ve managed to dive back in, and I’m thinking the more relaxed summer atmosphere will make this the enjoyable art I had imagined it to be long ago.

For the band’s screens, since the designs were text-based from the computer, I used the photo emulsion method outlined in the tutorials below. When using a design out of my head, though, I find it easier to draw on paper than on the computer and so I usually use the screen filler method. My dad and grandpa made the screens for me, and for the screen fabric I just picked up some basic silk acetate off the clearance rack.

want to learn to screenprint?
These are a few of the resources I used and found extremely handy.
· Silk Screen Printing Instructions – a copy of the manual that comes with Speedball Printing Kits
· Screen Printing – Cheap, Dirty, and At Home
· How to Silkscreen Posters and Shirts

It’s a great way to produce a lot of something without losing the handmade quality. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to help you out!

lots of flat whales

even with eyeballs,
flat whales don’t do much swimming.
they’re really just… flat.

pile of flat whales

A quite daunting pile of flat whales. They’ve all got eyeballs now, so they’re ready to be stuffed and stitched up. While installing one of over 30 eyeballs yesterday, I decided to make a Safety Eye Tutorial to teach you all my method for preventing lopsided eyes on your plush. I hope you find it helpful!

Of course, once I had this huge pile of whales to work on, my creative brain started thinking of ways to procrastinate the handsewing (which is my least favorite part). So of course I started digging through my fabric stash and cutting out an obscene number of new wristlets. Those, fortunately, have no hand-finishing at all, so they’ll all actually be finished soon.