Thanks to EDT Services for making a very quick job of removing our partition spilling very little dust in the process, obviously the last thing we need in our workshops is dust. EDT were very helpful in working weekends and evenings creating minimal disruption to our output. With the wall removed we were able to start bringing in the TAS (T-shirt printing machine) piece by piece.

The  base of the machine could have been separated into 2 pieces for easier transportation, but it was left as one to save time re-assembling the machine, this was an extremely heavy piece of  machinery and would be nearly impossible to man-handle into the workshops, with a little help from Acland who are conveniently just around the corner it was popped through our doors on the front of their JCB loadall with no problem at all. Experience has taught us it is simply not worth trying to manhandle heavy objects when you have an extremely helpful plant hire company on your doorstep.

With the TAS fully assembled and in place we are supposed to be back up to speed, but as with all new things there is a lot to learn, we are already finding certain simple features on the TAS make huge time savings. Operation is simple and registration is accurate, so it is now just a case of fine tuning our print / flood speeds and pressures. With 2 autos up and running we should now be able to proceed without any major changes for some time, allowing us to concentrate on quality and production. There are still many new things to try out in relation to water based inks and screen/stencil production.

We now hope to find time for improvements to the Advertees website, introducing some new products (for 2010) and special offers on T-shirt printing in particular. We should be writing more blog posts too, in an effort to keep you informed of any developments to our screen printing abilities. Two months without writing a post is way to long.

The new machine will bring much needed added capacity, and make better use of the large gas dryer we have recently installed. Waterbased printing becomes viable for more orders as we increase overall throughput. There has been some nice designs this summer, and it is a shame we have run short on blogging time when there are so many interesting jobs going through our workshops. This post brings the grand total for July to a whopping two.

The above print uses a grafco clear base and is on a white earth positive T-shirt, the first picture in this article is a discharge print on yellow american apparel.

and below: Fully acro’d up for removal of partition. This will allow us to run two automatics on our gas dryer.

and the chickens carry on oblivious to our efforts.

May has been a very busy month for us, this blog has only seen one post at the beginning of this month, as printing T shirts has been required from waking to sleeping. Our new gas dryer has been a very worth while investment, with more jobs  being printed using water based at a much faster rate.

An increase in our output has been matched by demand, water based printing jobs are up, the non Formaldehyde discharge has been very well received by customers. What is down is blog posts, so a little more effort will be made in the next couple of months to publish something informative and helpful about T shirt printing, suggestions of topics are welcome.

And as we ran around busy as can be, the chickens relaxed, and while our backs were turned the Fox payed a visit! Seven of the Advertees chickens were killed, new fencing has been erected and a new member of the Advertees team ( a Jack Russell ) has been given the job of patrolling it. Pecking orders have been re-established and things are slowly returning to normal in the chicken house.

Chickens check out the new floor space

Curious to know what kind of mesh tensions were achieved in the good old days, we put the Newton metre on a wooden screen printing frame, and it did not even register, we finally found one with a reading of 7 Newtons! Shown below next to our Newton Screen reading a healthy 30+.

So now we have potential for making good use of our adjacent barn, although a little building work is required when the clean up is finished, this is much needed new space to grow into.

Update 2011: The barn is now fully converted into a screen room, where screens are prepared, dried, exposed, and reclaimed. We do not miss the wooden screens.

The weather has been glorious, we have finally turned the corner, when the sun comes out you can feel summer is on the way. The chickens here at Advertees are loving it, unfortunately I am not getting out in it at all. Next week should see Royzy putting in some hours, a much needed helping hand. The automatic T-shirt printer is great to use when you have a student to clean up the screens and squeeges.

Photography by Tony Plant

The last few days have been the coldest we can remember. After a well earned rest over the Christmas period we were all keen to leap into action and set about tackling our already growing list of screen printing jobs, however,  we were soon to realise that very little could be done without our water supply. Here are 5 good reasons no screen printer should be without a good water supply and well insulated pipes.

1. Tea and coffee.

   Nearly every member of the Advertees team has a tea or coffee requirement, in order to achieve maximum efficiency the supply needs to be maintained.

2. Washing out screen stencils.

   It is impossible to wash out stencils without water, borrowed water in a container can sort out the tea and coffee crisis, but will not help in making a good silk screen stencil.

3. Reclaiming used screens.

   Again, this is an impossible task when you do not have the use of a good pressure washer.

4. Washing ink from screens.

   Although not ideal, water from a bucket can do the job, although I would not recommend it, you may also resort to plastic inks which can be washed out with various toxic screen washes.

5. Afternoon Tea.

   Previously assumed as a workers right, this is now a cherished moment, all water is used sparingly throughout the day to ensure this ritual goes uninterrupted.

These temperatures are unheard of in this part of the world, it has been an interesting 2 days. We are fully operational again with a new found respect for our water supply, full steam ahead and we should catch up on our orders in no time.

Odyssey Overland are embarking on another epic journey to Darwin from London in the Spring of 2009. It looks like the trip of a lifetime if you have 26 weeks to spare.
Pete Deverson has many years experience in organising these trips, and you are assured a trip few people would ever experience in their lifetime, taking in more than 20 countries, from some of the worlds most remote places to some of its ancient treasures, simply too much to list here. Take a look at of the amazing images on the overland odyssey web site for a taste of what is on offer.

Meanwhile we at Advertees have to make do with providing some Promotional T-shirts for the lucky few.

Suftwisted are in the process of a radical change, an interesting site is threatening to emerge from twisted towers in the very near future. The killer site is going to take bevel, emboss and shadow photoshop filters to the next level, no text or photograph will be left untouched.

In depth profiles of team riders can be found at the site already if you are willing to take the time to find them, but no sign of any merchandise for sale so far, the twisted merchandise is becoming very exclusive kit, and as a result the price is being driven sky high.

2011 update: Surtwisted remains in limbo, merch as illusive as ever, Tont Plant currently in Sumatra meditating on what the next incarnation will be. Can’t wait to find out what it is.

Usually after a busy summer we are able to find time to get organised, and tidy up a little, but this October has been hectic. We have printed many more T shirts than we did last October and in the current economic climate we are very pleased to be doing good business. So we have struggled to find time for the removal of timber, together with its woodworm, from the barn adjacent to the workshops, but somehow we managed an early bonfire and hopefully the erradication of the woodworm.
This month also sees a change to the blog, we have been using the free Arthemia theme for a couple of months now, and we are so pleased with the over all user friendly interface and clean layout we have decided to upgrade T shirt printing Cornwall to the premium theme, and so far it is looking good, Michael Jubel Hutagalung has created an excellent premium wordpress theme with a number of improvements on the free version. There was no dramas with the installation, and configuration of the thumbnails is now taken care of by the theme. The administration panel will help those who have no idea about PHP. We found only minor tweaks with the style sheet were needed to get exactly what we want, as the simple clean layout is very hard to fault. Now all we need to do is create some video for some added interest.

You can visit the twisted blog and have a go at name this spot Competitions, which are run on a semi regular basis, or even enter the tri annual shelf fest if you feel up to it. Better still, buy yourself a surftwisted T shirt! If you can figure out a way to purchase the Twisted merch, there is presently no online shop or retail outlet, you will need to track down Tony Plant, and if you are lucky, he will give you a screen printed organic T shirt in return for some cash. Good luck if you choose to pursue this.

Whether you are looking to hire a logo designer or just want some advice on designing your own, be sure to check out these five friendly and very talented designers.

1. David Airey

David was one of the first really interesting and responsive designers I discovered online. He has some great articles on his blog and even shows his workings and the processes he went through for various jobs in his portfolio. Click on the image below to check out the process he went through for this example.

An example of David Airey's work.

http://www.davidairey.com/

2. Jacob Cass

Jacob is another designer who has a real dedication to helping people with informative articles and responding to comments. He seems to have a keen eye for current design trends. Even at just 20 years old and part way through university, he is well up with the best of them.

An example of Jacob Cass's work.

http://justcreativedesign.com/

3. Graham Smith

Graham has over 20 years of experience in commercial design and it really shows in his work. With so much experience, he is sure to have a great knowledge when it comes to design. Be sure to check out his extensive portfolio.

An example of Graham Smith's work.

http://imjustcreative.com/

4. Brian Yerkes

As well as owning it, Brian is the creative director of Brian Joseph Studios. He is well known in the creative networking area online and has a friendly writing style and some good tutorials on his personal site.

Examples of Brian Yerkes' work.

http://www.brianyerkes.com/

5. Chris Spooner

If you check out Chris’s portfolio, you can see how versatile he is, from logos to web, to print. He has some great tutorials and plenty of relevant resources on his design blog, including how he made the MyNitelife logo below.

Example of Chris Spooner's work.

http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/

There are so many amazing designers out there, so make sure you look around and do your research. A lot of great designers can be found through the designers above if you have a good look through their sites.

Have fun, and good luck.

Roy Nottage

And while we at Advertees are busy using our gold waterbased inks to print hoodies for a youth programme aimed at helping youngsters stay on the straight and narrow, our friends at The House of Thieves are using their gold ink and screen printing skills for promotion of pretty much the opposite.
Their collection of limited edition screen printed T shirts are selling out as fast as they can create them, and with good reason, these T shirts are quite different to anything on the market at the moment, original, stand out designs, that we wish were not so limited in number. You have to be quick if you like a design!

Another Sold Out House of Thieves T shirt.

Design by Humans.

Slaterock

This is set up as a T shirt market place. Artists advertise their work to the public and, in competitions, DBH members vote for the best. The winners receive a big cash wad and feel pretty good about themselves – deservedly so, there is a lot of very thoughtful/skilful design work in here.
I said a lot, I meant to say a huge amount.

Ekosystem.

Is about street art of all types with a great gallery and blogs chock full of lovely images.

Paintalicious.

Natalie Shau

This blogzine throws the spotlight on contemporary art, with the emphasis on the macabre/burlesque.
There are some great links on this site, to some fascinating work including that of…

Gez Fry.

Gez Fry

He is a very good Manga-esque fantasy illustrator. Both characters and settings are superbly executed and highly imaginative.

Ticklebooth.

Craig Welch

This is a video site with links to a collection of what the site’s bloggers consider the best in online videos.
Dark, light, morbid, funny, take a look at any of these and you’re in for wonderful visuals as well as entertainment.

Kontra.

Kontra

Kontra (Francisco Garzon) produces a very ‘connected’, hybridisation of graffiti, techno and comic styles.
His colourful website has an unusual design – reminiscent of a much sprayed and postered wall.
He has an easy talent with complex imagery that floods the mind. Instant inspiration.

Cuban posters

Bachs

Here are celebrated Cuban posters, mostly from the 60′s and 70′s, in all their colour and vibrancy.
Revolution, cinema (take a look at the posters by Bachs – ‘ The Great St Trinians Train Robbery’ for one), politics, public holidays, human rights; it’s all here.
Lots of juicy blog links.

Jacob McMurray

Jacob McMurray

The Jacob McMurray blogspot shows a selection of the work of this Seattle based designer, publisher and curator. Book, poster, and exhibition design are all included and provide varied refreshment for the tired eye.

The best feature of this blog layout is perhaps the ability to write about things outside of T-shirt printing without it confusing people when they arrive, all the t-shirt relevant articles stay in the top half of the page, allowing us to insert the odd event in the life of the Advertees hens, quite possibly of no interest to anyone but our good selves.
The hens have doubled in number this year which is great, but I don’t think we will allow any of them to sit on eggs next year as we now have a full house (A house which I keep being told needs a new roof). The things I have learnt in this first 8 months of keeping chickens are many, and one I only noticed today was that the hens that sat on the eggs for 21 days and reared the chicks, seem to have shed their old feathers and replaced them with new, a malting chicken is big news to me.
I am also completely sold on the idea that birds are only slightly modified dinosaurs, and this makes watching their behaviour all the more interesting, they are very intelligent creatures with very individual behaviours/characteristics (personalities is what I really want to say) was this true of the dinosaurs too? Apologies to all scientists for any misinformation I pass on to the one or two readers which may stumble upon this blog article, this is my history of the world, created from partly digested information, taken from various, and dubious sources, then carefully reassembled discarding anything that does not appeal to me. So there it is, a very good reason to keep this blog focused on t shirt printing, and keep these ramblings tucked away out of sight with my lovely new layout, courtesy of Michael Jubel.

Japanese design T shirt printing in opaque water based inks.

A break from T-shirt printing for one moment to congratulate Tony and Troy on a fantastic cover shot. It seems a while ago now but finally some pictures from the Surftwisted Indo trip are starting to emerge. Apparently there was some doubt as to the true nationality of the twisted team rider, the name Troy Sinclair and Tony Plants surreal approach to all things, sparked a search for the supposed ‘Scottish’ surfer in an effort to ensure an authentic british rider was on the cover. More details within the pages of Pit Pilot. As yet this is all unconfirmed babble from Tony Plant, I look forward to a realworld perspective when I buy the magazine.

Lizard MCC splashed all over the french papers. Although the cornish bikers are not entirely certain of what is written they are sure it is good for international relations. If you want to read about 20,000 bikers in Porcaro, eating pancakes (or ham and chips), and getting blessed, take a look at the lizard MCC Blog and read it as it happens.

Nice T-shirt printing even if we say so ourselves.

Well it has been long overdue, and the fix was not too painful either. The blog has been in need of a sort out for some time, we did not realise when we started with our t-shirt printing blog how quickly it would grow. The old theme was very nice but it was beginning to get a little cramped, everything felt squashed in. So here it is, a fresh new look! (Unless of course you are reading the feed embedded in the advertees website, we will sort this out soon!) and the thing we like best about our new blog layout, is the ability to select our featured posts, this gives us a chance to let the visitor know a little more about Advertees and our clients none T shirt oriented articles without distracting them from what most of our visitors want to know about. T Shirts and printing. So a photograph of newly discovered egg laying spot will not sidetrack you from your initial line of enquiry, we hope.