The Show Floor There are so many good reasons to attend a trade-show: Learning, networking, socializing, talking shop, happy-hours, fancy dinners, parties, bars, etc. Ok, ok, let’s not forget why we are there in the first place: the show floor. Companies expend tremendous resources to exhibit at a trade-show. It’s not just the cost of…
Pinholes Pinholes piss off customers when you send shirts out without you having found them and removed them from your prints. They waste time and money and brain cells with shooting them out with dry cleaning fluid. They make you ruin most garment-dyed shirts (not Comfort Wash or most SanMar) because they can’t be shot…
Usually Tom and I relay a story of our own mistakes, which folks seem to enjoy hearing about. Today it is a mix of my woes and someone else’s. On a Facebook group this morning a fellow traveler in the world of screenprinting was having trouble with screens that would not wash out. What can…
In a post on some forum on the internet this week somebody was saying that our industry, in particular our trade shows, are not fun. Fair enough. Sometimes these things have been boring. We at the Ink Kitchen have been working the past few years to shake it up. I think we fell from lofty…
This question comes up often with screenprinters: why can we not hold detail? The answer is an idea similar to the art department concept of problems with source artwork where we say “garbage in, garbage out.” We are now are transferring that idea to print production. Basically, if you have a crappy stencil you have no chance…
Happy Earth Day! April 22nd has been the annual day since some folks started it in 1970. After witnessing the terrible Santa Barbara oil spill Senator Gaylord Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media. He persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited…
Question: Our printing doesn’t seem to be getting better, what are the best ways to go about improving our printing abilities? Answer: My two cents? Stop being penny wise and pound foolish. Saving twenty dollars and buying a gallon of inexpensive but inferior emulsion is a terrible idea. Inferior emulsions don’t have the resolution…
If you hang out with any emulsion company, you will hear them talk about the importance of each step of the reclaim process. EVERY STEP. I have seen so many forum posts about how degreasing is a waste of time. C’mon people! The screen is the most important part of screen printing, let’s treat it…
The Ink Kitchen visited the KIWO in Wiesloch, Germany. Wiesloch is a nice little town just outside of Heidelberg, probably the most beautiful city in Germany. I’m going to just say a few words about the company and then let the photos do most of the talking. I have worked with KIWO for over 20 years and the…
A few refections as the busy trade show season is mostly over. I think the biggest trends of the past ten years have been digital printing and environmental concerns. Developments in the environmental realm have slowed but still do continue and will not stop, we have to find increasingly safe and sustainable ways to do…
