Entries from June 2009

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Roses are red…

 
We are reminded today of the wonders of the Pantone Matching System. As we less and less deal with each other face to face, we need tools to communicate at a distance. One thing very difficult to communicate is the most visual of things, color.
Is this violet?
 
Is this violet?
 
 
We just finally settled on half-price on [...]

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Interview with Stefan Bergill, Organic Man

I have known Stefan Bergill since lived out West and he ran Patagonia’s Beneficial T’s program. He is knowledgeable and passionate about organic cotton. He moved East and he currently works for Econcsious. I caught up with him the other day and asked him a few questions about organic cotton and his experiences.
 
 
 

1. What originally [...]

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Curing Ink on Canvas

We received a panic inquiry yesterday about ink not curing on a canvas bag. We field many questions for our vendors, since printers love to blame the substrate for printing problems. 
In this case the printer said that the ink ran when the printed bags were washed, despite the fact that they “ran the bags at [...]

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Press Registration - Mechanical Factors

Our last post was about garment related causes for print registration problems. A stable substrate is always the first thing to check when registration is an issue, and then one moves on to checking the press.
Before checking the press itself, one needs to check the screens and platens (pallets) on the press. Check the easy [...]

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Press Registration - Moving garments

I received a call the other day that a brand new press was installed and the company would print 50 shirts and “the press would go out of register.”
Some presses can go out of register, but we are spoiled as ours in fact do not. In fact, the press going out of register is usually [...]

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Recycled Inks

In the spirit of the environmental movement, which has had a motto of the three R’s - Reduce Re-use Recycle, we have instituted a “Recycled Ink” program at Mirror Image. We have inks that were mixed in error, over bought (boo hoo, the Patriots lost!) over mixed, mixed or programs that were unexpectedly cancelled, etc.
These [...]