LorraineDesign

So as promised, I’m posting how the Ben Folds shirts turned out. First, a little background. Back when I was in college, I was able to see Ben live for the first time when he performed on our campus. He had these awesome tour shirts at the time with his face and “Rock This Bitch” on them to commemorate his live tour. (For the backstory on that particular song, click here.) Alas! They were out of my size! In the years since, my sister and I have scoured the internet, but have never even so much as found a reference photo. With his concert approaching this past week, we decided to use my new gocco to create our own version of the shirts. I drew his head in Illustrator using a past tour shirt and his photo for reference (see below). It promised to be the perfect test design because I included a variety of line weights, a couple of large solid blocks for his hair, and a nice slab serif font at the bottom.

After a couple of months of reading up on instructions/tips, I felt I had a good grasp on what I was doing when burning the screen. I photocopied my design on the lightest setting, ironed it using several pieces of computer paper (perhaps I needed to use the Clean-Up Paper for it to work?), immediately lined it up on the printing bed, and flashed both sections using the Blue Screen with the emulsion-side of the screen down touching the master copy. (Note: in the photos above, we didn’t manage to capture a photo of the flash, but both bulbs did work on each section of the screen.) As posted before (here and here), it obviously didn’t work for some reason… And on a side question, do you have to reverse your type for a gocco screen? I didn’t think you did since the image looks correct through the machine’s window, but then I started confusing myself thinking about it after the screen was already ruined…

So not wanting all that time spent to be for nothing, I figured I’d transfer the design onto some nice, thick stock I keep around for stencils. (Besides, we got some really cute long-sleeve tees from Target that I didn’t want to go to waste.) I had to modify the design a bit so that the stencil would be all one piece. After tacking it down to the shirt using double stick tape (the insides of the glasses were sparate stencils I taped down at the same time), I painted in the design using some fabric ink I had around the house. I think they turned out rather nicely if I do say so myself, and if I get a better photo of the finished product, I’ll post it. Sadly, my late-night photos didn’t show up all too well above, but at least you get the idea. The concert was great, and the shirts were a hit!

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1. Event Recap: Camp Firebelly 2010
2. Firebelly Holiday Shop Sneak Peak
3. Event Recap: Cantankerous Hellfighter

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