My Friend Should Sell These!

on 10.28.2009


I keep urging him to, but as usual he just brushes it off as a hobby.

So much quality & love goes into the production of these bags, it's a shame no one else but me will be the recipient of these high-quality totes (v_v,)



He used tough nylon fabric that sells at Ikea®. About 20" across and just as deep. The interior lining uses vintage polyester fabric.


And pictured below my mami sporting it to give you an idea of how it handles:

About the size of that rolled-up yoga mat.

Nothing more that I LOATHE than 2C to see good talent go to waste! I know he'll be reading this post so perhaps you guys out there could urge him to sell these beauties into the marketplace?

It'll carry more weight if you guys say it. Cheer him along in the comments section!

Garment Print

on 10.26.2009
If you're ever getting tshirts made, read on...


In my earlier posts, I put a picture up of my very first customized Munny. For those of you who don't remember, it's in the picture above. Then I decided I wanted a matching shirt promoting my custom Munny. So!

A while back, I had a temporary stint at a Tshirt shop and I was in charge of the garment printer. I learned a hell of a lot in that short time I was there.

There's many different shirt printing methods, but I totally praise the garment printer. I'm even addicted to it. It must've descended from Mt. Olympus upon us lowly peons...ok I jest.

I will show you an example. I finally made that drawing of my custom Munny and ran it through the garment printer. Here's the finished product:

I colored each of the four dolls in different colors so you can get a feel of how they print out.

Here I used an Anvil® V-neck shirt, thin enough for summer wear. The cloth had no problem soaking up the ink perfectly. I slipped the shirt onto the plate, raised it (there's a lever underneath to raise the plate for shirts; lower it for thicker garments) hit the print button and voilá!

✚A garment printer is like a bigger version of a regular ink-jet printer, only it's specifically made for shirts.

✚Like a regular printer, it uses the black/ cyan/ yellow/ magenta inks.

✚There is no white ink of course
, so any white color in the digital file shows up as absent from the printing process.

✚Clearly you can't print on black shirts with it. That's like printing black letters on your home printer on top of black paper.

My only complaint with garment printing is that the machine we used didn't come with any kind of software. (major FAIL)

Software in this case would help VERY MUCH...

We used a Brother® brand which I loved, but the plate doesn't have any guides to help you align the garment so you have no freaking clue where the print area starts and ends. We ended up eye-balling and guessing how to align which should never happen in a busy-busy-busy shirt shop, especially with pricey machinery!
This is where pre-made digital shirt templates would've helped big time. Our printer was made to work with Adobe & Corel software, probably more types; I don't know, but it leaves to the imagination where your design will land on the shirt. Not good.


✚You think, that the machine knows how to read your digital drawing and calculate where to begin printing so that the image comes out perfectly. IT DOESN'T.

✚These machines DO NOT HAVE GUIDES. We have to guess where to lign up the garment.

I ruined many tester shirts and a few good ones trying to get it 'just right'. Printouts ended up far too high on the shirt and left a good 1 foot of blank space along the bottom. Or, the image was waaay below the neckline, or too close to the left armpit, hardly centered, blah blah blah...

✚If the last person lowered the plate and forgot to reset it to the standard position, the ink will smear all over the tshirt or whatever thin garment is loaded on the plate.

✚There's no way of knowing the plate has been lowered until it's too late: the adjustable lever is underneath the plate.

✚The plate is about, hmm, waist-high. So what are we supposed to do, bend down on our knees each and everytime to check before each run???(DESIGN FAIL)

Customers do not pay for shirts with mistakes on them either. Really not good.

But the print quality is SUPERB. Here's a close-up. Looks like my Munny, right? :














And to the right, a zoom-in of the inked fabric.
The ink soaks through the fabric, leaving it soft and pliable.

Unlike professional screenprinting, where the most popular method involves letting the ink generally sits atop the fabric.

✚That kind of ink is actually a product called Plastisol, which is like hot melted plastic, and colors are later applied on top of that after cooling.

✚Plastisol is most useful for applying white and pastel colors to name a few.

Here's a good example. This shirt I've had since 2003? It's from the Billabong line, it's a Plastisol graphic with the yellow and orange colors tinted over it:

This is an American Apparel® Classic Girl tank.
You can see that the graphic has crackled after a few years and many trips to the laundromat.















I always prefer the garment print 10-1. Color comes out slick and even fine lines show up, but not light colors. Light colors come out looking washed out and faded. For that, I'd go with the Plastisol. But for my very first professionally printed shirt I have to say I did a pretty decent job☻

I Gave Birth To This Sewing Abomination

on 9.13.2009
Kawaii♥!



I did this sorta askewed stuffed animal while I completed my tailoring apprenticeship. When I started it, I had no idea it would come to resemble a weiner dog.

And then I thought maybe it could double as a sorta blowup doll for my dog back home. But he's just as neutered as Hugh Heifner on a Ritalin choo-choo. So I refined this fabric masterpiece and this is how it turned out:

Flying Doggie!


Full Length View


Top Dog


Under Dog✩ (Talk about recycling...did I mention it was made from an old sweater from Goodwill?)


Closeup of tail finishing


I feel dirty! No redrocketing here folks!


Stand up! Good boy!


We have the technology to rebuild him...


It took me 2 hrs to make this bad boy, plus 5 min to hand-sew the buttons on.

Boy-o, using a sewing machine RULES! I once mended 5 pairs of socks and took me about 6 hrs. If you have the machine, by all means use it! Another thing that sucks about hand sewing? If your fabric is too thick you have to use a lot of force to push that needle thru. That's where a thimble comes in handy. But your fingers get tender in the end regardless.

Maybe next time I'll crochet a condom or something. More riveting updates L8TR!

Emo Room

Before Twitter, Yahoo! Answers was my crack. I was on it earlier as I had a few ?'s of my own when I noticed someone asking for an emo bedroom ideas.

Then I drew this little diddy quickly. It's important to note when painting a bedroom, you have to use lighter colors on the walls if you have less than 2 windows. Light plays a major role in interior design. So here's my concept with one window:



Of course I cut & paste the vinyl toys & plushies. And there's wall decals on there as well. I am a fan of minimalism. Oh man, the things I could design with an unlimited budget! A girl can dream.

Sketchbook Diaries 1

on 7.29.2009


Roommate and I had a friend over one night. Needless intoxication ensued, along with hijinks and some episode about farting on each other's faces. I set taco shells on fire. Friend ran down the stairs with burning toaster oven. Good times, good times. Friend and I had a mini-drawing marathon/ Halo marathon. Somehow I came up with this and damned if I can remember what he drew.

My Anbu Soldier

on 7.18.2009

No secret I'm otaku, although not as hardcore as some anime-nazis I've met in my time ;-)

This drawing I am particularly proud of because it was done purely by imagination. No reference pictures whatsoever. Which means it took a buttload of hours to draw, especially cuz I'm indecisive about composition and poses. But I did have to erase a billion times over the drawing, now in one of my old sketchbooks somewhere in storage. (complete with eraser burnmarks!)

BTW, this was done with a mouse 3 yrs. ago during my pre-Wacom days. And yes, massive carpal tunnel ensued (>_<)



Making My Tshirts At Home

on 7.17.2009
There are plenty of tutorials out there for this kind of thing, and this isn't one of them.
Though if you ask nicely, I'll happily point the way towards some really good ones ;-)

I got the urge one night (ok, 3 nites and 3 shirts) to make my own shirt designs right here by hand. I constantly shift between computer art and um, human-powered art. Doing one or the other gets tedious and this time around was no different.

The biggest obstacles I face right now are that my studio space is in Jersey along with my art supplies. Even if I had them here, papi raises hell for even small infractions. Like leaving a sweater on a couch.

Heaven help me if I leave a sweater on a couch, in this nursing home of derelicts! Not only will I keep hearing about it over, and over, and get lambasted with it atop any future accusations, but have a lil' old man chirping in my ear repeatedly whilst circling and hovering over me. Interrogation tactics that would make even the KGB cry for their mommy. Makes anyone feel all stabby, it does :-P

As a result, much of my art has been reduced to digital. Luckily I found my Japanese toxic marker pens that write on anything (leather, vinyl, fabric) and found some blank Hanes™ Tshirts and got the hell going on that there hizzy:

As you can plainly see, I began drawing on printer paper and taped it with drafting tape onto corrugated cardboard backing (my clipboard dissappeared). The drafting tape part is important. It makes peeling off super easy and holds strong. And for the drawing, a regular #2 pencil and Sanford™ Eraser Stick.

Above you can see the finished sketch, complete with a multitude of erased-over indentations. Kinda sloppy, so I remedied this by printing out a copy on my All-In-One printer, at full dark.
That printed copy I then traced in black Sharpie™ marker:

Next, as soon as I finish I tape onto the cardboard and slide a blank shirt over it. That shirt is then affixed to the cardboard to prevent sliding around as I draw over it with the paint marker.

See what I mean? Zoom shot!


And here are some angle shots of how I affixed the shirt in place:



Here I am drawing over the shirt (with Sharpie first), which covers the drawing I am tracing:



Here you can see the kind of paint marker I use over it, and the final result:



I should mention that although I made this shirt for a friend, that friend wears a size Medium in men's. All I had was XL to work with, which explains the extra tightening of the rubberband in the back. Also explains why the graphic seems small in the center. But he knows his way around industrial sewing machines, so it won't be problematic resizing it.

The drawing is a chibi of my friend; meet Poundcake!

Don't cry! I didn't really go anywhere

on 6.18.2009
Since my last post, I did get quite a bit done.

I did open a Zazzle store, opened a Paypal accunt, did a few Munny mods, re-arranged my work space...

Then my computer started acting up.

Then I had to troubleshoot for two weeks, TWO WEEKS! And I still coudn't figure it out.

Then, the internet signal disappeared! I couldn't connect to anyone for those same two weeks!

So I went to the local Panera and I couldn't connect THERE either. *frustrating!*

So I went to Starbucks and still, I couldn't connect despite delicious chai green tea latte goodness.

And I finally gave up, gave in. Rang up my computer guy, HappyGuy, and told him that hey, this shit sucks ass! I need my cyberjuice! HELP ME!!!!

HappyGuy traveled all the way from Brooklyn out here and with him took my laptop. I had nothing to do in those following two weeks and I shit you not, I got a bad case of the Twitter jitters. Bad enough I'm stewing in the pathetic juices of celibacy, but now I can't even Twitter! Yea, but the phone got disconnected months ago, so no go.

So what's a girl to do?

Turn into a couch potato, of course!

So I've been watching tv on the couch and believe I put a permanent indentation into it. Direct TV sent us a notice telling us it was giving us 3 mo. of free Showtime. Saw it; not impressed. It's like they only have 10 movies, EVER, and they keep replaying them on a loop. Annoying! And people would pay for this service?!

Thank god for USA Network and it's back to back NCIS episodes. And fuck TLC and all their baby shows! Whores. I threw up a little in my mouth from flipping thru and catching a clip of an obese woman giving birth. The real shit kicker was that she was cross-eyed during the push. *BLEERGH!*

So I peeled myself off the couch and did some landscaping. I actually pulled up old brickwork and replaced it. Found plenty of rusty nails mixed with concrete chunks from the days of yore. And pulled weeds out. And planted bulbs. And planted shrubs. And planted flowers. And when it was all said and done, I began clawing at the walls because ordinarily I'd be screwing right about now and now there's no hot guy to screw. Must keep busy; idle hands, the devil's tool.

Luckily HappyGuy triumphantly returned (no I did not screw him; just friends thank you) and we went to see a few movies: Wolverine, Star Trek, and Terminator:Salvation; all terrific btw! Afterwards he handed me back my laptop all fixed and such, telling me that my firewall was set so high it kept changing the permissions on my wifi so I couldn't connect. Duh!

And as a bonus, he updated all my software, defragmented, deleted broken files, and optimized my overall OS. Fuck GeekSquad, I got HappyGuy! I'd totally do a website for him but he remains on the down low due to a booming roster of clientele. Hell, everything I learned about computers is due to him. If I ever moved out of state, I'd be so fucked! And not in a good way ;-)

Speaking of getting laid (which I am not) I decided to do the online dating thing. Wow. What a mess of rejects are out there! Get this:
  • ~One guy told me some gaylord is blackmailing him and kept chiding me for drinking 2 beers on our date (WTF),
  • ~One guy turned his nose at me because I'm a pc and not a mac,
  • ~And another pulled a 180 calling me an idiot because I refused to upload chat software (Christ compels you, you demon assclown!)
  • ~And last but not least, some dude I played guitar duets with in highschool tried to contact me-EEEWW! I don't think he realized who I was, thank god! Suffice to say the years have not been kind to this former jerk as his profile pic makes him look like some kind of rodent-eww! Nuff said. I'm off to the convent now.
  • ~DATING SUCKS BEAR'S BALLS
So I am channeling my positive energies into my art. Started making Tshirt designs again. I actually painted on the shirts the designs and will mail them to out-of-state friends. If any of you ever wanna see previews of any of my artwork, go to my Twitter profile where I post them. So that's it for this brief recap of where the hell I've been this whole time. Bye for now; gotta update the look on this site.

Busy-ness

on 1.13.2009
So a few new additions to this site:

  • Freebies tab; all new (under construction)
  • modified links widget; now includes link to my playlist
  • links back to my other site as well; go to it cuz there's a list of design contests
So enjoy. Should keep everyone busy awhile. I'm still spending too much time on the other site, simply because me and many others are having issues with FeedBurner right now. Such as, why my stats indicate many visitors yet the counter only shows one. Hmm. 'Tis a quandary of sorts.

Confuse Me Much?

on 1.05.2009
I was offput from my drawing responsibilities earlier today because mami had an episode. She's being irresponsible with her meds. I noticed it when I asked her to melt me a little stick butter for my breakfast toast and instead, shows up in my room with the entire waxpaper-wrapped stick microwaved into the Pyrex cup. I had to fish out the half-melted drippy butter stick out of it. Pretty nasty.

I ask her, "Mami, are you being dumb on purpose? Why did you do this?" But I knew the answer even if she replied with silence.
"You stopped taking you meds, didn't you?"

She said "Yes, because I didn't want it to interfere with other medicines I'm taking right now."

"What other medicines?"

"You know, Aleve, the Alka-Seltzer I took for my cold, -" and other holistic crap she takes.

*sigh* "Mami, that has no effect on it whatsoever. Take your meds."

She then pretended not to hear me, smiled, did a little spin and laughed. This is her typical goofy defense tactic to diffuse my anger. It didnt' work. The thing about alzheimers is some of it can be contained in the first stages. I discussed this with her. Once those brain neurons are wiped out, there's no getting them back. She agreed to be diligent about her medication.
I looked at the pop-out tablets. She must've skipped a week and a half's worth, and I was pissed to say the least.

My dad, in typical dad fashion, is not alarmed and oblivious. Way to demonstrate support there. Some unified front, eh?

These two will be the death of me. My dad hands me a few min. ago the auto insurance report dude's rep notification of some weird claimant law imposed only in the state of New York. And I ask him "So? They're supposed to notify you in writing of this law. They explained it over the phone, remember?"

But he just wanted to demonstrate again, for several minutes, how he can effectively waste my time, now with redundancy! Like yesterday when they both decided to pay 77 cents of $12.77 in as much pennies as possible on a crowded Sunday at the Stop & Shop. Oh, and they argued over which coins they were going to use; more pennies or more nickels?

I, of course, turned to them in anger and said that this is the reason everyone hates old people. They both laughed at me. Then they couldn't make up their mind over which exit we should use since we were placed exactly equidistant from either one. I yelled at them to follow me already, and made sure they both kept up. They're honestly not old enough to act like bratty kids yet but make sure they annoy the shit out of me once a week abouts. They're so sweet, tiny, and adorable that you'd never see it coming. Their calculated attempts to confuse me so.

That's riiiight...you two just keep dancing on those landmines...

And this is why I never go anywhere with them. One walks fast enough she dissappears and the other walks slow enough he dissappears. Like little kids. I may have to get them chipped soon. I wonder if the local animal shelter will do it for free? Oh hey, just an afterthought. Chillax.

But I was so livid from earlier I went straight for the wine bottle today. Managed to spill some on my wacom tablet that I was such a bundle of nerves. Called an old friend to unwind. That was a 4 hrs. phone call.

And why am I complaining about my folks? Because it's clearly difficult to get my own shit done when I get to witness their decay. The line between self-serving adults and incapable adults is quickly diminishing. I'm beginning to feel like a full-time nurse on clock. It's actually more frightening than anything. And certainly non-conducive to progress. *sigh*

--------------------------------------------
Now before that episode, I was able to take that design from the post below and clean it up a little before placing it onto one of Zazzle's Tshirt Templates.

What I've discovered upon using Zazzle templates is that they suck big bears' balls.

I was expecting an outline of a shirt, or a dashed outline of my printable area.
BUT NO! Zazzle must think it's cute to be confusing.
Did my folks call them earlier and told them I needed a great challenge?

Dude, all their Tshirt template is is just an illustration of perpendicular rulers with notes telling you which measurements and DPI to adjust your drawing to. Don't be fooled by that shirt-looking avatar- download the file and you'll see what I mean.

And the template isn't even fixed into place or anything; it slides all over the place. And you never know if you're supposed to draw only within the rulers, given that it exceeds beyond your canvas area. And it has these set crop marks but the damn template, again, slides in and out of place. WTMF?!

They give these to you as PSD files (the other type are the same so I expected the PSD files to automatically sync with my design application) which are supposed to be saved as SVG according to Zazzle but, BUT, Photoshop doesn't give me that option. So I have to re-import that right back into Illustrator where I first drew my artwork, and re-save it for web, as a JPG, then as SVG. Why so many useless steps? What the fuck kind of horseshit is that?

  • If the drawing needs to be 12" x 14" @ 150 dpi then just say so!
  • Have your template fixed to snaps. Please.
  • Don't make me guess where printable area should sit
  • Don't make me guess where to place your template - in or around my canvas area
  • Your shirt template is useless. Stick to giving me just the measurements, thanks
I was able to squeeze in enough time to use the skateboard template. That, I did find useful. Oh look, a skateboard shape. That tells me I'm supposed to draw within that shape! Brilliant!

But honestly, just an outline will do. I don't see why they don't draw a shirt and box in the printable area over it. That would help me visualize how far up - down my image can stretch and how wide it would appear upon my garment. Because I find myself imagining how small this image will show up on the garment, and me spending many useless hours trying to resize that shit.

Yea, I'm so sure there's a forum for this somewhere. But the amt. of time I'd waste perusing 18 pages and 6 diff. topics and several hundred posts, I'd most likely figure it out first.

*sigh* Why is everybody always pickin' on me?

Updated Site

on 1.03.2009
I've finally found a template fit for this site! To see who created it, scroll down to the bottom of the page at the footer. If you go to their site, give 'em my thanx!

Ok, as you can see, I've added a lotta goodies here. Such as
  • tag cloud
  • twitter updates
  • copyright info
  • shoutlist icons
  • Live bookmarking
  • an About section
  • a Freebies section (currently inactive; will update later)
  • got Search Bar working
  • re-coordinated Header image
  • and elsewhere on the net I can be found
And that's it for now. That is quite a bit for me. I divvy up my time between this, updating my other sites, and designing (of course!) so it all takes a lot out of me. I'll try to post from now on at least twice a week. I'll try. No promises though, 'cuz I have a nasty habit of breaking them. (yikes!)

About Strongvillage

*I would like to be buried with the following items in no particular order. For nobody will deflower my hardware in my absence or drink from my Holy Cuppacoffeegrail, for it will runneth over only my dead body! En chanté.



This blog is my dump (heh!) of anything my twisted brain conjures.

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