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Port Eliot 2010 T shirt.

Steve — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:15:54 +0000

This weekend Port Eliot Festival plays host to a huge variety of creative talent, and as usual there seems to be something of interest for everyone.

Unfortunately for Advertees a consequence of this event is that we lose a highly valued member of staff for the duration. Our genius admin (who keeps everything here running in an orderly fashion) will be camped out at the Festival, no doubt enjoying everything the Elephant Fayre has to offer, and this could mean our efficiency levels for Friday this week and Monday next, could be effected. And while Admin take a wild swim, watch bands, films, talks and readings, we will do our upmost to leave desks, computers and phones exactly as we found them.

Tickets are still available at the gate, and we, or rather admin@advertees, can vouch for the pure magic of this festival.

And of course, don’t forget to take a look at the beautiful T shirts, a simple yet extremely effective design. and soft feel water based screen printing as pictured top.

2009 Cornwall Film Festival

Steve — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:45:41 +0000

Thought it might be a good idea to write a post before the festival starts this year. The 8th Annual Cornwall Film Festival is going to deliver a huge variety of Film in just three days

Friday to Sunday, 13-15 November in Falmouth

As well as showcasing Cornish shorts, the festival will include National and international Film past and present, professional workshops and lectures.

Feature Films include the classic Eraserhead, and a south west premiere of Glorious 39 from Stephen Poliakoff, there are a number of short films on offer too, and Board shorts is taking place at the Stannary Bar Tremough for all those interested in UK surf film.

Newly installed T-shirt printing machine

Steve — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 11:06:32 +0000

It is never a good time to install large machinery, and the interruption in production certainly makes the busier periods a time to avoid. When you add the removal of a wall to the scenario it becomes a much bigger under taking, one which requires a little bit of time management and regrettably a couple of months away from the blog.

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.

T-shirts that incorporate everything we like, The Present.

Steve — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:28:48 +0000

Every now and then we come across T-shirt prints which have all the qualities we like, water based printing is a must, good design for screen print is another plus.

T shirts which are organic, or at least sweat shop free are always good. The T shirts featured tick all these boxes, a promotion for a UK tour of, The Present, a new Thomas Campbell film. The follow up to surf films Sprout, and The Seedling covers West Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Sumatra, Java, Hawaii and California. For more information about the film and the venues visit thesurfscreen.com.

Looking at the featured surfers and locations this is probably going to be another classic, we can’t wait to see it.

The tour dates and venues are:

* Wednesday 22nd April The Royal Cinema, St Ives
* Saturday 25th April The Sallis Beeney Theatre, Brighton
* Friday 1st May The Carnmarth Hotel, Newquay
* Saturday 2nd May Woodlane Theatre, Falmouth
* Saturday 9th May The Lighthouse Centre, Poole
* Sunday 10th May The Cube Cinema, Bristol
* Saturday 16th May Braunton Village Hall, Braunton
* Sunday 17th May The Reel Cinema, Kingsbridge
* Saturday 23rd May St Merryn Village Hall, St Merryn

Spring Chickens

Steve — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:30:54 +0000

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 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.

Tony Plant scores another cover shot

Steve — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:50:12 +0000

Another cover shot from surftwisted photographer Tony Plant. Taken in the dead of winter on the south coast in freezing temperatures, Tonys commitment to photography from the water paid off. Take a look at the surftwisted web site for more surf photography from around the cornish coast.

Printing Hoodies: 6 colour spot separation

Steve — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:55:34 +0000

A nice colourful design came through this week for Celefest. Initially this job was more than 6 colours, a little reworking made the design more affordable but had little effect on the impact of the design. Printed entirely in opaque water based inks, the colours were all underbased with yellow, as there is no white in the design. Curing a waterbase print like this is no easy matter, especially when printing hoodies as more ink is put down, so we gave the finished design a little heat pressing to make sure.

Chickens in the snow

Steve — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:46:13 +0000

How often do we see this in Cornwall? It will be a slow start to the day with our staff scattered about Cornwalls minor roads. Our admin has decided to take a walk into work this morning (five miles) I hasten to add this was not my suggestion, and the reward should be some amazing scenery. Our designer is more remote a little beyond walking distance and opted to wait a while before attempting to drive. The chickens seem ok with it, a little slower out of the house this morning. This will be our small contribution to the reported 1.2 billion pound cost to the economy each day we have snow on the ground.

5 reasons a screen printer should not be without water.

Steve — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:08:24 +0000

Iced up pipes bring our workshops to a virtual stand still this week

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.

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.
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.
Reclaiming used screens.

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

2008 a good year for T shirt printing

Steve — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:18:18 +0000

A late thank you to all our customers of 2008, growth has exceeded all expectations and feed back on new inks and products has been a great boost for our team. More development will take place in 2009 our main focus being on converting more jobs to a waterbased screen printing solution, it looks like a good start already to the year. We will be introducing new products to our range with the biggest changes being with work wear, we will respond to the demand for the major brands. Below are a few snippets from last years print runs, we look forward to printing more of you great T shirt designs in 2009.

T shirt printing images

I Love Cornwall T shirt

Steve — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:58:32 +0000

The most simple T shirt designs are often the most effective, I love Kernow T shirts are a good example of this. A timeless design that utilises White T shirts, simple printing in two colours, with a clear message. Easy.

Waterbased t shirt printing by Advertees

and finally, the surftwisted launch.

Steve — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:22:43 +0000

It has been a long time coming, but finally, a new website has emerged from Twisted Towers, it features surf video and photography from contributors around the UK and Ireland and promises regular posts about the people and the waves of the UK. Although still not featuring a shop, so the Surftwisted T-shirt will remain an elusive piece of clothing for the forseeable future. We wish them the best of luck.

Bolivia. Last full day… sigh

Julian — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:11:54 +0000

Monday

beach babes

Driving back to La Paz today but one more thing about Copacabana.

If you get a new car, bus or whatever, bring it here to get it blessed at the cathedral and everything will be alright. We saw many vehicles decked out in ribbons, drapes and flowers for this purpose. It’s cheaper than insurance and it’s a good chance to show off the new wheels. Cars are quite a status symbol and it’s obviously great fun and makes their owners very proud when the priest sprinkles the holy water all over.

God bless this 4 wheel drive

The long drive back to La Paz would be tedious if you had to do it regularly, but the llamas, lone people seemingly miles from anywhere in the arid hills, strange birds, isolated graveyards etc. keep you on the lookout all the way.

Che Guevara stomps on a nasty eagle

We hit El Alto-the urban growth spreading along the flatlands over the rim of the La Paz ‘bowl’, during the rush hour. The congestion lasts all the way downhill to our La Paz hotel. Road markings in Bolivia are poor and the technique is to point your vehicle in the desired direction and just drive. Cars, lorries, rubbish vehicles, everything, in a kind of slow moving vortex.

So close you can count the hairs on the bus drivers' ears

Nobody touches anyone else although we are inches apart. It works. You gradually push your way through. Nobody gets irate. You’re all in it together.

We check in then walk to the Witches’ Market. La Paz is a strange place. The outlying slum look gives way to a dark, enchanted kind of feel towards the centre. The Witches’ Market is like a well from which this weirdness flows.

Lovely patterns...

You can buy the usual tourist stuff here-in abundance. The alpaca chompas, table cloths, little statues etc. etc.

...Nice, pretty colours...

AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

You can also buy charms and talismans such as toad skins, snake skins, toucan heads, dried birds and llama foetuses.
Walking back through the streets with this brooding atmosphere as darkness descends is unforgettable. The leathery-faced old women wrapped in dark shawls sit along the pavements. If you slow, they call out to you in little broken voices hoping you’ll buy their dark wares.

Promotional t shirt printing

Fair trade hoodies

Steve — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:06:24 +0000

Om Padma of Cornwall produce a nice line in Yoga tops, a print run of fairly traded hoodies printed using waterbased ink. The brightly coloured hoodies are printed using an opaque water based screen printing ink which is 90% bio degradable, the pigments used to create these vivid colours are too strong to enable the discharge printing method. The hoodies are organic cotton in conversion from epona who also produce a good range of fair trade T shirts.

Sunday, Bolivia Sunday

Julian — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:48:10 +0000

Sunday

If it’s Sunday, it must be the Isla del Sol. We board a swift little vessel and motor off to the lake’s largest island.

Copa, Copacabana. Nowhere near Havana

Jealous?

On the way a flock of a dozen flamingoes passes overhead as the morning sun warms us just enough to take the chill off the breeze. Ah, Titicaca. The Bolivians have a saying; it’s about the lake and it’s name. ”Peru has one part and we have the other”. I’ll leave it to your imagination.

Temple of the Sun

There’s a good little temple on the island made by Tihuanaco people on their way to forming the Inca Empire. Once covered in gold that would glisten in the sun, it is now brought back to the bare rock walls.
We take a splendid stroll through the terraces (potatoes, barley and beans) to the next cove, looking like something along the Amalfi coast, where we catch up with the boat. On the way are locals selling high quality merchandise and chiquillos posing with llamas for a couple of Bolivianos a shot.

The famous reed boats

Trucha for lunch back at Copa (muy bueno). Late afternoon we climb the Cerro Calvario hill-named after Calvary,

Top of the hill

and there are many ‘Stations of the Cross’ on the way up. The summit is a bit rowdy-some sort of party-but the view over the lake to the Isla and across the town and the bay is pretty cool, especially at sunset.

Back through the shop-lined streets, stopping to buy some nic-nacs.

Julian Rowe T shirt design

Some seasonal screen printing perks

Steve — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:44:45 +0000

Christmas is now getting closer, and as it does the food industry goes into overdrive. This year we have been very fortunate to recieve chocolate in thanks for our T shirt printing, the above photograph is of a partly decimated box of organic handmade chocolate which had to be wrestled from staff for the benefit of this blog. This organic handmade chocolate is highly recommended by the Advertees team many of whom will be making the journey to St Ives to make purchases in the very near future.
We were also treated to the most amazing cornish fruitcake a photo of which had to be taken from the cornish fruitcake companies own web site, as I was too slow with the camera, staff polished off this treat in record time. Another 10 out of 10 from Advertees staff.

What about Saturday in Bolivia?

Julian — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:00:19 +0000

Saturday

We’re making the most of the weekend left in Bolivia, so we’ve signed up for a tour. First stop, the extremely ancient ruined city of Tihuanaco (or Tiwanaku), about one and a half hours out of La Paz.

The God Viracocha. He's got human heads hanging off his elbows!

Nobody knows how old this place is and opinions vary from about 3,000 to 10,000 or so years. It seems certain that it was a city that spawned several disparate civilisations including that of the Incas and that it lasted for thousands of years- whereas the Incas lasted for only two or three hundred.

This hole was cut like a human ear canal. It greatly amplifies sound. Talk through it, they can hear you in Belgium.

Bart Simpson goes way back

What has been uncovered so far shows incredible sophistication. Just one example would be the stonework which looks as if it has been cut-very carefully- using a modern mill.

Check those corners

Corners are mathematically precise ninety-degree angles. The flat sides are dead smooth and the edges, sharp enough to cut paper. Advanced civilisation or alien intervention? Maybe they were just showing off and somewhere there’s a mountain of all the stuff they did that was crap and got rejected. Whatever the case, this is a wonderful and absorbing place to visit. It leaves a lasting impression of power and loss.
We drive past snowy mountains to Lake Titicaca. The mini-bus goes on a funny little driftwood-decked ferry to cross at the narrowest point

The driver gives it some welly to get us over a little ramp and on to the ferry. He has to brake suddenly at the front to prevent us hitting the bows. The sudden lurch gives forward impetus to the unmanned ferry and we find ourselves drifting off into the lake! One of the lads who help to pilot the ferries heads us off in another boat until another manages to leap aboard to rescue us. I wonder how many drift off never to be seen again. It’s a big lake you know. Goes to Peru.

How many we lost today, Manuel?

On the other side we drive on, with tyres whining around tight bends overlooking the lake from high above. Destination Copacabana, not Barry Manilow’s but Bolivia’s. Copacabana is hotel-lined but thankfully not (yet) over-developed. It’s just a very pretty spot on the lake with a few tourist boats, some paddle swans and a lot of little places selling the local speciality, trucha criolla (salmon trout).

Dinner at the hotel restaurant is, for me anyway, my second tasting of llama for the day, and I must say, it’s good. A snap of the spectacular sunset, a visit to the hotel internet lounge, and beddy-bye.

promotional clothing

Back to Bolivia

Julian — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:01:45 +0000

Friday

Just a half day at school. We form a big circle so that Henry can wish us farewell. We are presented with gifts of work that the kids have done for us.

Sue goes around sharing out the big tin of heroes that we brought. Lots of hugs and photos-all rather emotional-and we finally leave.
We spend the afternoon exploring Tiq’, embarrassing people by videoing them and taking snaps so that we don’t forget the place.

Henry's Dad's birdies

Henry and family

In the evening, Henry takes us to another street market in Cocha’. We are surprised to find out that most of the cars here run not on liquid fuel but on natural gas! Henry pulls in to fill up and over comes a woman with a gas hose. Bolivia produces a lot of the stuff and it’s far cheaper then petrol. The cars sound rough, but you get a couple of hundred kilometres on a tank load and it’s well worth it.

This guy you see a lot of. He's supposed to be lucky, touch him and prosper.

wanna biscuitcake?

At the market, a great many tiny miniatures of everyday objects are for sale . Fruit and veg, washing powder, chocolate, all the way up to cars and even houses. You buy what you desire in life, take it to church to get it blessed and hope to receive it full-size. At least the idea is nice. We get a few more things to take home and then Henry drives us to the airport. The plane is delayed by two hours so we’re pretty bleary by the time we get into our room at La Paz having been taxied down what must be the longest downhill road in Bolivia and we’re still at about three and a half thousand metres when we arrive. We had to get the manager out of bed to let us in.

Bolivia te amamos

Julian — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:02:49 +0000

Thursday

Treated to a little play by the Kindergarten children. Basically anti-litter, pro-recycling, and very good fun!
Into the garden area to see how things work there and then an explanation of the school’s composting structure.

We were then shown photos from the last school camp by the kids involved.

The infernally clever ancient calculator

Next it was maths using various montessori methods and an indigenous wooden calculating board. (I was alright with simple adding, anything more difficult and I was lost. When answers to sums were asked for, I developed a keen artistic interest in the floor tiles (I always found that kind of thing worked when I was at school and it seems it still does).
We then piled hungrily into one of the other rooms for a big lunch provided by the teachers. Many delicious foodstuffs were to be tried and we tried them all. Very good too, excellent fava beans, incidently, though no liver or chianti.

El weavo

It was then left to us to amuse ourselves by observing the workshops being run outside. There was juggling, weaving etc.

Peli and Jorge live here

A note about the houses we stayed in. There are no housing regulations here! No planning permission required! you therefore have free rein on the shape, size and decoration of the house you want to build. So long as you have the wherewithal to do it (and a certain amount of structural sense), your home is your castle-and it can be! All of those we stayed in were pretty damn nice.

Peli's neighbour Elke's house

So it was back to Peli’s for some delicious home-smoked fish and an evening serenade by the local frogs. We took a turn around the garden, trying to home in on one or two, but it was dark and we just walked into trees and walls, so we went to bed.

Neighbourhood bovines

Another dollop of Bolivia

Julian — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:43:29 +0000

Wednesday

Off to school again. Henry is a master of bees and we trail off behind him kitted out in bee-proof suits as he charges his smoke gun with leaves to burn and then checks the school hives for developments.

It doesn't only dope bees

chock-full

We come back with a load of honey which gets distributed to the excited kids (and the excited visitors).
Next we watch as a group of girls make paper.

Drying in the sun

The soaked pulp from old paper of all types is blended (in a food blender) then put into a big pot where a little gelatine is added and mixed in. The mixture is then carefully spooned out in an even layer over a wooden-framed mesh screen (a bit like those used in screen printing). After the excess water is sponged off, the layer is transferred onto a sheet of paper and left in the sun to dry.
The resulting product is beautiful paper and can be made more attractive by the addition of flowers and leaves at the pulp stage. You’d pay a lot of money for this stuff in the UK. Here, it’s all part of the recycling of materials which poverty demands.

It was Bolivian regional food day and we tried various dishes, cooked by the children to raise money for the next school camp. Chicken in picante sauce, fried banana, small pheasant-ish eggs fried or boiled, the little, black potatoes which are first dried, then frozen before being ready for the pot (and taste as you would imagine) etc.
In the afternoon we went with Alvin to visit the SOS Childrens’ village in Tiq’. This is one of the charity’s 473 villages in 123 countries designed to support local orphans. It is like a self-sufficient community, largely manned by volunteers, with crops and livestock keeping, methane production (from the poo-the gas is used in the kitchen burners), drying fruit etc. There are solar showers and compost toilets and a natural water purification system. There is also a guinea pig farm. The little guys are fed for market-lots get eaten here in Bolivia. There is also a growing trend for dressing them up in cutesy little clothes and showing them; then, presumably, eating them. I’d rather be an ugly armadillo; though they also get used. They are, amongst other things, made into little guitars.

(Photo-Monkyhands)

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