This post isn’t going to have illustration. There are many many possible illustrations for this post, but there is no reason to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Do you want a bad looking t-shirt? Here are a few pointers:
1. Just design whatever you want and don’t think about what kind of shirt it is going on. It looks [...]

I would rather be writing about the Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa and all that, than thinking about nylon.
We have always avoided printing on nylon, but I’m learning to embrace it. Nylon shrinks when you heat it and ink doesn’t really want to adhere to it and nobody technical gives you any consistent information, other [...]

Discharge is an ugly sounding process.
Of course most discharge inks are kind of an ugly business.
However, that is another story.
The basics of discharge are that instead of covering up the darkness of a shirt with a couple of coats of ink, the discharge ink “neutralizes” the dye in the shirt. It isn’t bleaching, but it [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

There are a few basic principles involved in the process of drying screens after they have been coated.
You can make a “drying closet” out of very simple materials. Lack of sophisticated materials is not a problem when drying screens, but violation of certain principles IS a problem.
I have been in beginner’s shops and I have [...]

There is increased interest in printing textiles with water-based inks.
This is for the following several reasons, some of which seem reasonable and some to this observer which do not.
There are new laws in the USA which prevent the use of phthalates in ink and printers are using water-based ink because they do not contain [...]

I have found that if I am involved in a charitable effort that most people will help out if I follow the following guidelines:
- it is a well-organized effort. Nobody wants to try to help if there is chaos. Nobody wants to waste their valuable time for nothing.
- the venture has to be able to [...]