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The screen printing process has 2 big steps. Getting the art onto the silk screen, and then using a squeegee to press an ink through the silk and onto the shirt. The screen is made by spreading a UV sensitive emulsion (goop) onto a taut piece of silk, which then dries and becomes solid. This creates a solid layer that ink will not pass through, however, at this stage adding water will cause the emulsion to return to a thick liquid form. Exposing this solid layer to UV light creates a chemical bond in the emulsion that removes much of the reactivity to water. This is used to allow ink to pass through where we want it to. By placing a completely negative image on top of the solid emulsion, light is blocked from areas covered by the image and those areas remain reactive to water. After exposing the screen with the image to UV, washing it out with pressurized water will reveal the artwork on the screen. From here the screen can be used by placing it directly on top of what you wish to print on, or for larger/more precise production, a printing press is used. Actually printing the shirts is the fun part. Most of the shirt making process is preparation which can at times be uncertain. It’s never arduous but it is several small tasks that necessitate being spread out. The most satisfying part is when I see the first print on a shirt. After a couple of shirts you get in the groove and there’s a really comfortable workflow. We sold our Balloon Fiesta shirts out of the back of a Honda Element! We drove around all over trying to find good spots for posting and the most successful and recurring spot was the Tin Can Alley. They had watch parties for the ascensions and were quite welcoming to us there. Now, outside of contacting me directly through Instagram, the shirts are available in the Luna and Luz, a local shop in Old Town! They’re my go-to spot for Mother’s Day gifts and I’m quite lucky to have shirts there on consignment. Right now Instagram is where everything is. A website is in the pipeline, for allowing custom orders to be placed with any screens I continue to store from prior projects. That’ll come when a few projects unrelated to a tourist event have been completed. It’s gonna be a lot of dyed, patched, and screen printed denim coming up.