Unknown Artifact

The Deader Head

CJ — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Introducing The Deader Head t-shirt design by Wotto. This design was inspired by Wotto’s recent move to California and his love for all things Mexican, including the food!

The Deader Head is a 3-color hand screen print with water-based inks on mens/unisex American Apparel 2001 heather grey t-shirts (sizing charts). All orders are guaranteed. Many thanks for your interest.

Matt Wertz Promo Video by Lincoln Supply Co.

CJ — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Here is another great video that highlights the t-shirt printing process… this one is filmed by Joshua Wicker. The guys at Florida-based Lincoln Supply Co have definitely nailed the vintage look. Specifically notable is how the shirt peels off the screen to help add to the distressed look. Very nice.

Lincoln Supply Co on Twitter, Facebook, and Vimeo.

Matt Wertz‘s online store.

Joshua Wicker

Hydro74 vs. Vahalla Studios

CJ — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Screen printing is incredibly cool but this video helps remove any doubt. Here is another nicely-done overview of the screen printing process. This particular video was taped at Vahalla Studio in Kansas City and composed by Lemon Lime Photo. The printed poster in the video was illustrated by Joshua M. Smith of Hydro74. Kick-ass music by Maps for Travelers.

Finder’s credit goes to the Flyer Goodness Twitter Feed and DKNG Studios where the video was posted.

Here are a couple other screen printing overview videos put to music:

A Pretty Rough Guide To Screen Printing – Video
We Are All Workers: Levi’s Workshops – Printmaking

Spring Broke 2011

CJ — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 07:00:00 GMT

If you are a t-shirt enthusiast who likes to buy from indie brands online then this Monday, March 21st, should be marked on your calendar. The fine folks over at iamthetrend.com have rallied the indie t-shirt community to have a massive 24 hour sale. Over 50 clothing lines will be participating. This event is touted as a “Black Friday” style sale but in the Spring so there should be some incredibly good bargains.

As of this writing, the list of participating merchants has not been published yet. You can keep an eye on iamthetrend.com for the announcement. Unknown Artifact (UA) will be participating as well. This graphic should be floating around amongst the sea of other merchants when the list is released.

iamthetrend.com on twitter, facebook, youtube, flickr, vimeo.

Credit goes to Kyle Crawford from The Electric Zombie for submitting the notion of a Spring Broke sale to iamthetrend.com.

Limited Edition Prints by Zeb Love

CJ — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Yes! These incredible prints of notable historical figures were designed, hand painted, and screen printed by artist, Zeb Love. Zeb’s process involved hand painting the background color(s) prior to hand screen printing the last color. These handmade beauties are signed, numbered, stamped, and printed on 140lb Utrecht Educators Watercolor paper. Each print is 16″ x 20″ and limited to only ten prints each! Scroll down to see pictures of all six prints along with images of the printing process…

Lincoln:

Tesla:

Magellan:

Earheart:

Columbus:

Details:

Printing Process:

Be sure to check out Zeb’s various presences on the web. His artistic abilities covers a wide range of mediums…

Zeb Love on Cargo Collective and Behance.

I first learned about these prints from iamthetrend

Superhero Dinosaurs by David Resto

CJ — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:00:00 GMT

You gotta love this mashup: prehistoric beast meets comic book superhero… two of David Resto‘s favorite pastimes. These popular digital illustrations are available for sale as giclée prints on matte stock. I picked up Captain Ameritops the other day and cannot wait to receive it in the mail. You can get yours and save 10% by using the promo code, TENOFFUA. Many thanks, David.

The Avengersaurs:

Superhero Dinosaurs on Big Cartel and Flickr.

David Resto on Tumbler, Twitter, and Flickr

Jump Start Your Shirt Biz

CJ — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 08:00:00 GMT

There are a large number of indie t-shirt start-ups on the internet and only a small percentage of them cross the threshold to becoming a sustainable business with multiple employees. That’s precisely what Ben Scrivens has done with Fright-Rags, a horror based t-shirt company located in Rochester, New York. Fright-Rags has come a long way from its humble beginnings and is now a thriving business with an engaged fan base.

With over 7 years in the t-shirt business, Ben is now looking to share his valuable experience and be a “personal trainer” for other aspiring t-shirt businesses. Ben is offering multiple 1-hour group sessions/courses where he provides his insights and attendees can have all their questions answered.

As of this writing, there are only a few spots remaining in the course and enrollment for this first offering will close this Monday (March 7th). Although the enrollment deadline is just around the corner, one can speculate that there may be another offering in the future. With no shortage of indie t-shirt start-ups there could be an ongoing market for this kind of service. That combined with Ben’s ability to provide what customers desire and his customer service record, this could wind up being another successful venture for Ben.

Jump Start Your Shirt Biz

Fright Rags
Fright Rags on Facebook
Fright Rags on Twitter
Fright Rags on YouTube

Testimonials & Lessons Learned

CJ — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 08:00:00 GMT

When it comes to running a small business, I expect to learn some things the hard way… by making mistakes. So far, I have learned a lot this way. Along with every struggle you hope to also have positive feedback to let you know you are headed in the right direction. Before I write about some of the lessons learned I’ll share one testimonial in particular that keeps me motivated. Many thanks to everyone who took the time to write kind words and to give me feedback.

Testimonials

Along with making mistakes I’ve also done a few things correctly. One email in particular is quite meaningful since it came from a t-shirt collector who buys shirts online regularly. It’s a testimonial that I’m proud of and it’s the type of customer experience I strive to provide for everyone. A ton of credit goes to Rob Gould for creating such great artwork, in this case. (Click image to enlarge.)

Hi CJ,

Just wanted to follow up on the last email you sent me regarding the “Veni Vedi Veci” shirts order.
I am totally impressed. Where do I begin?

First off I really love the design of “Veni Vedi Veci”, and it printed very well on the shirt. I also love that it is a large print design.
I’ve been collecting shirt designs for quite some time now. I have close to 60 different designs in my collection from various websites (Threadless, Shirt.Woot, DBH, Tilteed, etc.). With that said, “Veni Vedi Veci” is now one of my favorites in my collection.
Not only was I impressed with the shirt, but I was impressed by the customer service. I really liked how you sent me the email to let me know the shirts were on the way, and I liked how you asked for customer feedback which shows you really care about customer satisfaction. I was also surprised by how fast the shirts came. I think they came in on Friday (Dec 10th).
What else can I say? Out of all the sites I’ve bought shirts from, you shipped it the fastest, and also the packaging you used was the most protective.
The most surprising is the low price. The quality of your product and customer service rivals those of the other major shirt websites I mentioned. I don’t know how you’re able to provide the shirts at that awesome low price, but I must say: Thanks!
As you can tell, I’m very happy and I hope to purchase more shirts from you in the future.

-Samuel

It is these types of emails that make all the effort worthwhile and keep me going. Many thanks to Samuel for taking the time to write!

Lessons Learned

I’ve learned a ton so far – too much to write out in a single blog post and in some cases too embarrassing to spell out. Nonetheless, I’ll point out a few meaningful insights that I’ve picked up… some of which, I’m sure, will likely be obvious to other online proprietors. Some of these lessons are specific to my biz: screen printing, and others are specific to my situation: part-time business owner as a hobby.

Learning to print costs money.

More precisely, screen printing mistakes cost money. I learned to screen print at an early age prior to my current occupation (the day job) so I thought I might be able to hit the ground running without making costly mistakes. This was not the case. My suggestion to anyone wanting to build out a screen print shop would be to budget in a healthy amount of funds for learning how to print (or re-learning, in my case). Also, water-based inks were new to me and I had a mix of new and used equipment. It takes time and trial and error to refurbish and to learn how to get the best out of your equipment. Not only that, I’ve made expensive mistakes. I’ve printed full runs and then realized the flaws after the fact. Not factoring in the cost of spoilage will give you a lot of anxiety if you are not prepared for it. Fortunately, my printing process is becoming more familiar, reliable, and much easier. I have not produced any expensive mistakes in a while.

An online store-front filled with products does not guarantee sales. Have a marketing strategy.

Throw up an online shopping cart and watch the money roll in, right? So not true. In fact, the way I went about starting up was probably more challenging than most. None of my family or friends knew about my screen printing endeavor when I started. Most still don’t know that I’m doing this. I never had that built-in unconditional fan base to kick-start my business. I intentionally kept a low profile, for whatever reason, and needed to figure out how to market and generate sales.

If you send out defective product (unintentionally), chances are you won’t hear about it and you’ve lost any chance of a repeat customer. Try to send out perfect product every time.

I guarantee all my work. Meaning, if I make a mistake (send the wrong size shirt, the shirt has a flaw, etc.) I refund the purchase plus shipping. I will go out of my way to make things right. In one instance I did a random follow-up email with some customers and found out in one case that they received the wrong size shirt. Totally my mistake, so I exchanged the shirt for the correct size but I would never have known unless I followed up. After inquiring, the customer felt they “couldn’t be bothered” to go through the hassle of asking for an exchange on their own accord. I quickly then realized that I’ve done the same thing in the past with defective t-shirts I’ve purchased. In some cases, it’s too much of a hassle to go through the process of sending the shirt back and hoping for good customer service and a proper exchange. Even though it could have been a rare mistake on the vendors part, I’d thought to myself that I’d likely never order from them again. Fulfilling orders takes time but it’s something I try to do well by double and triple checking orders for defects, etc.

Plan on spending more time running and maintaining the business than doing what your business is about.

This lesson learned is specific to my situation: running a small screen printing business in my spare time. I spend more time running and maintaining the business than I do in the shop screen printing. I work hard at what’s most important and that’s promptly fulfilling orders and maintaining relationships (email). In fact, I spend most of my time on the computer and struggle to find time to be creative and print new stuff. I’m not complaining, it’s just the way it goes.

Progress is slow!

Closely related to the previous lesson learned, progress is slow. This may be obvious but things just don’t happen overnight. More so for individual proprietors who truly only work in their spare time. For me, family and my day-job come first and foremost. After that, it’s exercise. Once all of those things are fulfiled, then and only then, will I work on my small business. This usually means that I’m working on Unknown Artifact (UA) in the middle of the night or early morning before bed. It’s rare when I’m working on UA and I’m not completely fatigued. Sometimes it’s frustrating when progress is not made fast enough but it’s something that I’m getting used to. Whether or not you have a lot of time to allocate to your spare time projects, progress is usually considered a marathon, not a sprint. The progress I’ve made thus far and the anticipation of what I would like to accomplish in the future keep me motivated. No matter how slow the progress, it’s still motivating and fulfilling nonetheless.

CMYKill on American Apparel

CJ — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Introducing Robert Gould‘s, CMYKill t-shirt design. A design inspired by the iconic 1976 film, Taxi Driver.

Water-based prints are incredibly soft and are virtually undetectable to the touch after one wash. This design is printed on unisex white American Apparel 2001. Please refer to the sizing charts prior to ordering if you are not familiar with these garments. All orders are guaranteed. Many thanks for your interest.

A Year of Tees

CJ — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Imagine having the task of creating one t-shirt design every day for one year. Well, as of this post, Keith Walsh is a matter of a few short days away from accomplishing this task over at A Year of Tees.

At one point during the year, these shirts were for sale but not anymore. The shopping cart was disabled due to unmanageable demand. Every t-shirt was screen printed by hand as the orders came in and due to the popularity of the site and the sheer number of shirts available, fulfilling orders became too challenging. Nonetheless, Keith continued to generate a design a day and fulfilled his drunken bet. Nice work, Keith!

http://ayearoftees.com
http://www.facebook.com/ayearoftees
http://twitter.com/yearoftees
http://www.keithwalsh.com

Keaton Henson’s Debut Album, "Dear ...", Edition 32/120

CJ — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:00:00 GMT

This is a follow up post regarding Keaton Henson’s Debut Album, “Dear …”. In this case, my limited edition album is entitled “Dear CJ”.

I was lucky enough to snag one of the limited edition albums and I must say that I was not disappointed. Not only is the music profoundly good but the album itself is a nice piece of art from Mr. Henson himself. The stitching, personalization, and one-of-a-kind drawing make this album beautifully unrefined and interesting. I’ve seen photos of other limited edition albums and I wonder if any of the drawings have deeper meaning or if they are just random doodles. In any case, you can tell that care was taken with these drawings to ensure that they were properly framed within the die-cut envelopes, among other details. If none of this makes sense, be sure to read my first post about this album and how it relates to the the t-shirt world. Other than that, here are a few more pictures I took of the album. (Click on any of the pictures for a slightly closer view.)

The limited edition albums are sold out; however, you can still purchase the non-limited edition album, Dear …, from Motive.

Keaton Henson’s website:
http://www.keatonhenson.com/

T-Shirt Spending Spree

CJ — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:00:00 GMT

As a t-shirt and design enthusiast myself, I like to buy shirts from other independent companies, brands, and artists. The following is a picture of my latest spending spree over this past Black Friday and Cyber Monday. How many of these garments can you identify?

2010 Retrospect & 2011 New Years Resolutions

CJ — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Happy New Year, everyone! As of now, millions of websites all over the world have updated their copyright footer. In addition, millions of people will reflect on the prior year and set new goals for the coming 365 days. I accompany this group of people with the following notes…

2010 Retrospect

For Unknown Artifact (UA), 2010 marked the public presence of this website (back in April). In a little under eight months, a screen print shop became production ready, a website was created, an online shopping cart was added, over 30 blog posts were published, 6 products (t-shirts) were produced, and a modest amount of shirts were sold and shipped to individuals in different countries: Canada, UK, Greece, as well as here in the USA.

These accomplishments are humble beginnings compared to other more successful, start-ups. Nonetheless, these minor accomplishments are not bad for a project done in my spare time. I would like to thank all the people who have contributed thus far in some way to this project. A special “thank you” goes out to two people in particular who have made the biggest impact this past year: Rob Gould and MJ.

Rob Gould is a designer/artist based out of California who was kind enough to give me the rights to print a couple of great designs (one of which will be announced soon). Rob is a designer/artist that really understands the subtleties of screen printing. He also has extensive knowledge about the t-shirt business industry in general. This experience has made it seamless for me to learn and work with Rob. In addition, Rob has also made many helpful suggestions for my little project and has been there as a resourceful sounding board. His opinions, insight, and feedback have been greatly appreciated. Many thanks, Rob.

MJ is the owner of a couple of popular t-shirt related websites: Compete-tee-tion and Tee Magnet. MJ did what she does naturally… she discovered one of our t-shirt releases and posted it on her Tee Magnet blog. This is significant because MJ was the first person to post one of my releases and direct a lot of targeted traffic to the UA site – which generated a flurry of sales. Her simple post gave me a larger following and allowed me to refine my fulfillment process. The feedback from those sales was tremendous and a great experience. If that wasn’t enough, MJ was also kind enough to add the UA site as a permanent fixture to her Tee Magnet site in the form of a banner. Many thanks, MJ.

New Years Resolutions

Since 2010 was all about “getting started”, 2011 will most definitely be about marketing and refining. As of today, the following is a high level list of goals I have scribbled down:

Marketing: Increase traffic/sales
Become a regular buyer of art/designs
Improve my own design skills
Print some posters/serigraphs
Add more products – fill out the online store
Figure out a niche/style/process
Give this website a needed face-lift
…

===

Again, many thanks for everyone’s support and input thus far. On behalf of Unknown Artifact, I’d like to wish everyone a happy and healthy 2011.

Veni Vidi Vici on American Apparel

CJ — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Introducing Robert Gould‘s, Veni Vidi Vici t-shirt design. In May of 47 B.C., Caesar informed the Roman Senate of his victory over Pharnaces of Pontus near the town of Zela by writing, veni, vidi, vici: ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’. This design was originally a limited edition t-shirt print back in June of 2009 and it’s my great pleasure to be able to re-print this piece with water-based inks on American Apparel garments.

Water-based prints are incredibly soft and are virtually undetectable to the touch after one wash. T-shirts are printed on unisex black American Apparel 2001. Please refer to the sizing chart prior to ordering if you are not familiar with these garments. All orders are guaranteed. Many thanks for your interest.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sale

CJ — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In recognition of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, all t-shirts are now only $10. This sale also applies to the latest release (re-print) of Robert Gould’s, Veni Vidi Vici. Cheers!

Many thanks for your interest.

Keaton Henson’s Debut Album, “Dear…”

CJ — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Up until now, Keaton Henson was known to me as a t-shirt designer and artist. Several illustrations of his have achieved Tee Of The Day (TOTD) status over at the t-shirt centric website, Emptees.com (now named Mintees.com). Among some of those winning illustrations, along with other pieces, are popular Miles To Go t-shirts (Moby Dick, Invisible Man, Life of Pi, to name a few). His work can also be found at Urban Outfitters, among other places. Needless to say, Mr. Henson has established a following with his unique style and has become an accomplished artist.

What I didn’t know until recently about Keaton Henson, was that he is also a singer/song writer and musician. His debut album, entitled “Dear…”, is due out this November 22nd. What’s more interesting is that the first 620 editions of the album are handmade and sewn by Mr. Henson himself. The first 120 of those will contain a custom hand-drawn illustration. Furthermore, the album is entitled “Dear …” but for the first 620 editions, the album will be custom titled to be “Dear (your name)”.

This DIY approach is a nice personal touch for the lucky few who are able to acquire the limited edition album. Check out this video about the “Making of Dear (…)”:

After learning about Mr. Keaton’s musical aspirations and after a cursory listen of some of his music, you just get the impression that this guy exudes creativity. I was impressed with his artistic ability but after listening to of some of his songs, I’m equally impressed with his singing and song writing. I am not sure which songs are on his debut album but the song, Nests, in particular is compelling:

Again, Keaton Henson’s debut album is said to be out November 22nd; however, I have no idea how to buy one yet. I assume that information will soon be forthcoming. Even if I did know, I’d be lucky to get my hands on a limited edition copy.

Keaton Henson’s website:
http://www.keatonhenson.com/

Contend – Unisex Regular Fit Organic Crew

CJ — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 07:00:00 GMT

This t-shirt is a two-color print with water-based inks: a mustard yellow with a discharge under-base. It is printed on a super soft organic crew from Alternative Apparel. Water-based prints are incredibly soft on this vintage type t-shirt and virtually undetectable to the touch after one wash.

All orders are guaranteed. Return your purchase for a full refund (minus shipping) if you are not completely satisfied. Many thanks for your interest.

Unisex Size Chart
	S	M	L	XL	XXL
Chest	36 – 38	39 – 41	42 – 44	45 – 47	48 – 50
Waist	29 – 31	32 – 34	35 – 37	38 – 40	41 – 43
Hip	34 – 39	37 – 42	40 – 45	43 – 48	46 – 51

T-Shirt Neck Tags Printed With Photo-Polymer Stamp

CJ — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Printing neck tags on garments the traditional way is usually a hassle with water-based inks. Unlike plastisol inks, water-based inks dry into the screen in a short amount of time. This means a new screen needs to be burned and reclaimed every time a new neck tag run needs to be done. This repetitive process is a strain on resources so I was on the hunt for a simpler way of printing neck tags.

A neck tag print must not bleed through to the outside. For this reason, neck tag prints are usually a rough/light print compared to what you would see on the outside of the garment. It’s a topical print. Knowing that the quality of the print was not of great importance I thought I’d try using a custom photo-polymer stamp.

After a little practice, I was able to come up with a technique that produces a legible print.

After stamping, I used a heat gun to set the ink.

I think my expectations prior to testing this technique were low so I’m pretty happy with the results. Although there are some print-quality limitations to using a photo-polymer stamp on garments, it does save on resources. Especially for short runs. So far, it does appear that the benefits do outweigh the limitations in this case.

Many thanks to Liz over at Blue Diamond Stamp Company for providing me with my custom stamp.

Dual Purpose Print Shop

CJ — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 07:00:00 GMT

It’s getting cold here in the PNW so my print shop space needs to pull double duty. For what it’s worth, here is proof that a t-shirt print shop (6-color/station t-shirt carousel, exposing unit, flash dryer, screen rack, ink, screen dark box, wash-out sink and belt dryer) can fit within 1/2 of a 2 car garage. I do need to pull the vehicle out in order to print though.

UA’s First Pre-Order Item!

CJ — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 07:00:00 GMT

This is a big moment for my little project. After about two years of collecting printing equipment, building out this website, and prepping for order fulfillment (among other things), Unknown Artifact (UA) is finally offering its first pre-order item! My hope is that after this initial offering I will be able to make this endeavor sustainable and continue to offer low-cost, high-value garments/prints via pre-orders for a long time to come.

To commemorate this moment, I’m offering another first: a $2 off, per t-shirt, coupon code. Use the code FirstPreOrder at check-out when placing your order and the price of the Contend pre-order t-shirt will drop from $12 to $10, per t-shirt! $12 is an incredible price but $10 a crazy cheap price for a super-soft water-based print on an organic Alternative Apparel t-shirt.

All orders are guaranteed. Just return the unworn/unwashed item for a full refund (minus shipping) if you are not completely satisfied.

Contend – Unisex Regular Fit Organic Crew – Pre-Order

CJ — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Update: The pre-order period for this item is over. Overruns will be available in theshop after it’s printed. Many thanks for your interest.

I’ve played the game of soccer for as long as I can remember. These days, I’m fortunate to have access to pick-up soccer 5 days a week near where I live. It’s a friendly game and excessively rough play is discouraged. That said, I still remember playing competitive soccer and the intensity that comes with an aggressive challenge from your opponent.

This t-shirt will be a one color water-based print on the super soft organic crew from Alternative Apparel. Water-based prints are incredibly soft on this vintage type t-shirt and virtually undetectable to the touch.

All orders are guaranteed. Return your purchase for a full refund (minus shipping) if you are not completely satisfied.

Pre-order will end Sunday, October 17th, at midnight (PST).

The following is a computer generated mock-up of the intended final result.

What is a Pre-Order?

Pre-orders are UA products that are offered for sale before they are printed. A computer generated mock-up of a design is created and a perspective buyer has a window of time (usually 7-14 days) to purchase the pre-order item at a discount (usually $10-$12 for an American/Alternative Apparel t-shirt). After that, the pre-order sale for that item is closed and the garments are ordered, printed, and shipped to the buyers. Any additional garments printed are added to the Shop for a higher price (usually $14-$18 for an American/Alternative Apparel t-shirt).

Subscribe to the UA blog to know when new pre-order designs are available.

Unisex Size Chart
	S	M	L	XL	XXL
Chest	36 – 38	39 – 41	42 – 44	45 – 47	48 – 50
Waist	29 – 31	32 – 34	35 – 37	38 – 40	41 – 43
Hip	34 – 39	37 – 42	40 – 45	43 – 48	46 – 51

Expectations & Pre-Orders

CJ — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:00:00 GMT

UA is not a brand in the traditional sense. There is no explicit intention to create a cohesive set of designs. Rather, UA is a creative outlet for me to learn how to design, print, and run a small business. With today’s technology, it is possible to run a small business as a hobby. That’s the theory anyway. Subscribe to my blog and follow along as I attempt to prove this theory.

Expectations

UA is maintained in my spare time. It occupies my interests in small business and printmaking. In addition, this hobby is a solo effort. I run the business end, create and maintain the UA website, create the graphics/artwork, and fulfill the orders. I also pull all the prints on a 6-color carousel t-shirt press in my garage. Everything is done in-house, literally.

Just because UA is a spare time project doesn’t mean it’s not a priority. Rest assured that quality and customer service is paramount to this endeavor. Learning and creating a community of satisfied customers are key. That said, here is a short list of other things you can expect:

Low-Cost, High-Value, Custom Printed T-Shirts

You can expect custom printed products using water-based inks for an affordable price. Designs will primarily be printed on American Apparel or Alternative Apparel garments and will be offered via pre-orders. Subscribe to the UA blog to know when new pre-order designs are available.

Money Back Guarantee

Return any product for a full refund, minus shipping, for any reason. If the reason is due to my fault in any way, you can expect a full refund that includes shipping. Please contact me should you have any issues.

Prompt Shipping/Delivery

If an item is in stock, it will be shipped that day or the following business day. If the item is in pre-order, the item will be shipped the next business day after it is printed. In most cases, all orders are shipped world-wide via USPS.

Pre-Orders

Subscribe to the UA blog to know when new pre-order designs are available.

Alternative Apparel Garments

CJ — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I really like Alternative Apparel garments. Specifically, the Organic Crew and the Organic V-Neck shirts are incredibly soft and light-weight. They have that vintage fit and feel that is so appealing to me. What’s interesting too is that the longer you wear the t-shirt the better it drapes your body. It’s also the best kind of garment… a garment that looks better with age… wash after wash.

At this point, for the aforementioned reasons, I plan to offer water-based prints on mostly Alternative Apparel garments. Among the Alternative Apparel offerings, I’ll likely sprinkle in some American Apparel 2001 garments as well since it appears to be the industry standard garment for indie t-shirt vendors. The Alternative Apparel price point is slightly higher than the American Apparel 2001 shirts but I think it’s well worth the extra cost. Most buyers will likely not notice the bump in price since Unknown Artifact (UA) t-shirts will be affordable to begin with.

The following are a couple of pics of yours truly wearing Alternative Apparel t-shirts. Here I am trying incredibly hard to look kewl. The print on this shirt was my first ever test print. The actual print came out horrible (a misprint) but it made the shirt that much more interesting to me. I wear it often. The second picture is of me in the Organic V-neck.

The Threadless Story

CJ — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Threadless represents one end of the spectrum when it comes to running a t-shirt business online. The following mini documentary highlights Threadless’ successful business model and how this company grew from humble beginnings. In addition, this video talks about Threadless’ new partnership with Dell.

video talks about Threadless’ new partnership with Dell.

The Threadless Story: How an Internet T-Shirt Company Went XXL
Threadless the Movie
Dell Design Studio

Adding an E-Junkie Affiliate Program

CJ — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:00:00 GMT

I’m a complete newb to marketing and up until now, I have not given it much thought or effort. To be honest, I’m not big on the idea of pimping my own products. I don’t have that salesman personality. However, marketing on the internet has some palatable techniques compared to traditional marketing. One of the more powerful techniques is affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing, once implemented, allows an entity to financially reward someone (anyone) who refers a buyer. In most cases, the referrer receives a commission for every purchase. This is perfect for Unknown Artifact (UA) since I don’t have a ton of time to market my wares. If other people are inclined to promote UA products then I am more than willing (and happy) to pay out commissions for their referrals.

Who are UA Affiliates?

UA affiliates are people willing to promote UA products. Chances are even better that UA affiliates are bloggers who write about the indie t-shirt industry. There is a large handfull of t-shirt review blogs and I subscribe to most of them. Behind these blogs are people who dedicate their time and resources to producing meaningful reviews about t-shirt designs and the indie garment industry in general. Often times, what sets one t-shirt vendor apart from another when a blogger chooses to review a product is whether or not a vendor has an affiliate program. So, it’s in my best interest to offer a rewarding affiliate program to increase my chances of getting some publicity. It’s one of the easiest and most effective ways to promote my little project.

I consider myself a student and I take advice well. The notion of offering an affiliate program to increase UA’s exposure and sales was reaffirmed by Adam Hendle over at I Am The Trend. His post regarding “how to get more blogs to post about your clothing line” highlights four things a website like mine can do to increase the chances of getting publicity. The fourth recommendation is to offer an affiliate program.

E-Junkie’s Common Affiliate Program

This site utilizes E-Junkie for its shopping cart functionality. You can read about the shopping cart implementation details here. In addition, this site uses E-Junkie’s Common Affiliate Program to manage its affiliate program. E-Junkie allows me to offer a single commission across all UA products all while using a single URL. E-Junkie also offers Product Specific Affiliate Programs that allows users to define a unique URL and/or a unique commission percentage for each product.

When first reviewing E-Junkie’s affiliate program options, I required a combination of the two programs they offered. I wanted the simplicity of the Common Affiliate Program but I also wanted the ability for affiliates to promote a specific product using a unique URL, like the Product Specific Affiliate Program offers. E-Junkie didn’t accommodate multiple URL definitions for its Common Affiliate Program.

The way I was able to accommodate multiple URLs for a Common Affiliate Program was to add custom values to the affiliate URL. Fortunately, E-Junkie’s affiliate hop-link mechanism passes on custom values on the query string when it arrives at its destination. This allows the UA site to read these custom values and potentially, redirect the referred user to any UA webpage.

For instance, here is what a typical E-Junkie affiliate URL looks like:

https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=124503&c=ib&aff=124503

The values on the query string (highlighted in red) uniquely identify the affiliate as the referrer. E-Junkie’s Common Affiliate Program only allowed me to configure one URL as the destination page. In this case, it’s the UA shop page.

In order to accommodate multiple URLs, I provided instructions on an affiliate landing page for affiliates to add custom values on the query string if they want the URL to redirect to a specific UA web page. For instance, the following URL will redirect to the Distressed Star product page:

https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=124503&c=ib&aff=124503&ua_redirect=http://unknownartifact.com/shop/distressed-star-kids-t-shirt-size-8/

The redirect URL is highlighted in red. In order to read the custom values on the query string, I added a bit of JavaScript to detect these values and redirect to the new URL if the value exists. This logic is best done on the server but I just added a bit of JavaScript:

(function() {

	var getParameterByName = function(name)
	{
		name = name.replace(/[\[]/,"\\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\\]");
		var regexS = "[\\?&]"+name+"=([^&#]*)";
		var regex = new RegExp( regexS );
		var results = regex.exec( window.location.href );
		if( results == null )
			return "";
		else
			return decodeURIComponent(results[1].replace(/\+/g, " "));
	}

	var redirect = function() {
		var url = getParameterByName('ua_redirect');
		if (url) {
			window.document.location = url;
			return true;
		}
		return false;
	};
	
	if (redirect())
		return;
		
	/*other implementation code goes here...*/
}())

Final Thoughts

Like the shopping cart functionality, I’m quite pleased with E-Junkie’s affiliate program solution thus far. Any suggestions and feedback are greatly appreciated.

Here is UA’s Affiliate Program page. Many thanks for your interest.

FeedBurner Email Subscriptions

CJ — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In addition to using a RSS feed reader, you can now get Unknown Artifact (UA) blog posts sent to your email. Not everyone who reads a blog leverages the benefits of RSS feed readers and would rather receive an email when a blog is updated. Personally, I subscribe to feeds using Google Reader but I would definitely appreciate an email notification when some of my favorite blogs are updated as well.

For many reasons, the UA blog utilizes Google FeedBurner to manage its feed syndication. One of the many tools it offers is email subscription notification. This is great because FeedBurner takes care of all the details for me. It not only sends out nicely formatted emails but it also validates subscribers and manages the email list, among other things. All I needed to do is paste a snippet of HTML code into my web page. Very nice…

Announcing Unknown Artifact’s Affiliate Program

CJ — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been working on the Unknown Artifact (UA) website a lot lately and another major task can get checked off the to do list. UA’s affiliate program is finally live on the website. It’s UA’s first marketing effort and a major building block for future marketing efforts. You can read about UA’s affiliate program implementation details here. At some point, I will stop fussing with the website and try to fill up the shop a little more.

Adding an E-Junkie Shopping Cart to WordPress

CJ — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:00:00 GMT

The Unknown Artifact (UA) online shopping cart is finally live on the website. It’s another major task that can be crossed off the list before concentrating on designing and printing. I’m sure I will be updating and tweaking the appearance and usability of the shopping cart over time but, for now, I’m thankful the important bits are (finally!) up and running.

For those who like to look at code, the following are some rough notes about the implementation. Specifically, these notes will focus on how this WordPress site integrates with a 3rd-party shopping cart solution. In addition, these notes will highlight how the online shopping cart’s Grid View was implemented.

E-Junkie Shopping Cart

I decided to use the E-Junkie shopping cart for many reasons. The primary ones were for its 1,) low-cost full-featured capabilities and 2,) centrally managed services. For an affordable monthly fee (no per purchase fees), the E-junkie shopping cart has all the features I’m looking for including easy support for variants, inventory, coupon codes, affiliates, and sales tracking (to name a few). In addition to all the nifty features, I can implement this same shopping cart in any context. Meaning, all the product configurations for the UA shopping cart will work not just in this website but also in a Facebook Fan Page, eBay page, MySpace page, and anywhere else I can cut-and-paste a chunk of code. This shopping cart can retrofit to any context and is not just tied to this website, which is quite nice.

So far, I’m very pleased with the straight-forward ease of implementation. The E-Junkie shopping cart allows users to configure products and related fees for tangible goods such as shipping, packaging, and taxes (if applicable). From there, E-Junkie produces a code snippet for you to insert into a web page. It works great. Here is an example of a View Cart button code snippet:

<a class="ec_ejc_thkbx" onclick="javascript:return EJEJC_lc(this);" href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=cart&cl=124503&ejc=2" target="ej_ejc">
<img src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/ej_view_cart.gif" border="0" alt="View Cart" />
</a>
<script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[
        function EJEJC_lc(th) { return false; }
// ]]></script>
<script src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/box.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

I did put in a little extra effort to ensure a proper foundation for using the shopping cart in WordPress. For instance, this site has the Raw HTML Compatibility WordPress plugin installed so that WordPress does not mangle the code snippets with automatic formatting. I also took some extra time to further abstract the code snippets so that I could easily re-use them across many posts (described next).

Product Pages Are WordPress Blog Posts

All the product pages on this site will likely be WordPress blog posts. The following is a picture of the Distressed Star product page with the Add to Cart and View Cart buttons. Click on the image to enlarge.

Having blog posts as product pages is convenient since every one of UA’s blog posts automatically shows up in a UA subscriber’s RSS reader (such as Google Reader), a UA follower’s Twitter feed, and UA fan’s Facebook Page. The unfortunate side-effect of pasting the shopping cart code into a blog post is that the code itself shows up in RSS reader (and other places) as text. In many cases, the SCRIPT tags are stripped out and all that is left is the source code which is not meant for the end-user to read. Knowing that the content is extracted in these scenarios, I hid the code snippets within referenced JavaScript files. The code snippets themselves are then dynamically drawn in during the page load stage. This prevents the unsightly source code from appearing in a UA subscriber’s RSS reader and yet still allows the shopping cart to be visible and functional in the UA website.

The following code snippet is an example of what goes into a WordPress post or page. Highlighted in yellow is the referenced JavaScript file that dynamically creates the shopping cart functionality in the page:

<!--start_raw-->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/ua-cart.css" type="text/css" />
<script src="/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/ua-cart-2.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<!--end_raw-->
Product information goes here...

The following code snippet is the content of the ua-cart-2.js file. This code dynamically generates the shopping cart functionality:

(function() {

	var uaWriteShoppingCart = function(itm, price, type, options) {

		var str = '';		

		itm = itm || '';
		price = price || '$'
		type = type || 1;

		var cl = '124503';
		var url = 'http://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=cart;i=' + itm + ';cl=' + cl + ';ejc=2'

		var uaGenerateCartOptions = function() {

			var optns = [];
			options = options || 'Small|Medium|Large|X-Large|XX-Large';
			options = options.split('|');
			for (var n=0; n<options.length; n++)
			{
				optns.push('<option value="' + options[n] + '">'' + options[n] + '</option>');
			}
			return optns.join('');
		};

		switch (type)
		{
			case 1:
				options = uaGenerateCartOptions();
				str = '<div class="ua-item-cart">' +
						'<div class="ua-item-price">' + price + '</div>' +
						'<form class="ua-item-form" action="' + url + '" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="POST"><input name="on0" type="hidden" value="Size" />' +
						'<select class="ua-item-select" name="os0">' + options + '</select>' +
						'<input class="ec_ejc_thkbx" onclick="javascript:return EJEJC_lc(this.parentNode);" alt="Add to Cart" src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/ej_add_to_cart.gif" type="image" />' +
						'</form><a class="ec_ejc_thkbx" onclick="javascript:return EJEJC_lc(this);" href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=cart&cl=' + cl + '&ejc=2" target="ej_ejc">' +
						'<img src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/ej_view_cart.gif" border="0" alt="View Cart" />' +
						'</a>' +
						'<scr'+'ipt src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/box.js" type="text/javascript"></scr'+'ipt>' +
						'</div>';
				break;
			case 2:
				str = '<div class="ua-item-cart">' +
						'<div class="ua-item-price">' + price + '</div>' +
						'<a href="' + url + '" target="ej_ejc" class="ec_ejc_thkbx"><img src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/ej_add_to_cart.gif" border="0" alt="Add to Cart"/></a>' +
						'<a class="ec_ejc_thkbx" href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=cart&cl=' + cl + '&ejc=2" target="ej_ejc">' +
						'<img src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/ej_view_cart.gif" border="0" alt="View Cart" />' +
						'</a>' +
						'<sc'+'ript src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/box.js" type="text/javascript"></scri'+'pt>' +
						'</div>';
				break;
		}

		document.write(str);
	}

	var titleHas = function(txt) {
	    titleHas.title = titleHas.title || jQuery('.entry-title').last().html() || '';
		return (titleHas.title.toLowerCase().indexOf(txt.toLowerCase()) >= 0);
	};

	if (titleHas('Distressed Star')) uaWriteShoppingCart('784920', '$15.00', 2);
	else if (titleHas('Einstein Wearing 3D Glasses')) uaWriteShoppingCart('769286', '$15.00', 2);
	else if (titleHas('Lorem Ipsum Dolor')) uaWriteShoppingCart('769461', '$15.00', 2);
	else if (titleHas('Raining Hearts')) uaWriteShoppingCart('785156', '$18.00', 1, 'Small|Medium|Large|X-Large');
})();

Creating a Grid Layout (Thumbnail View)

When you look at most online shopping carts, they not only have a product page for every product but they also have a Grid View. A Grid View is, a sometimes paginated, thumbnail view of all the products in the online store. The user can navigate to the product page by clicking on its associated thumbnail. The following is a picture of UA’s Shop page with a Grid View (which only has four products at this time):

A Grid View is something that E-Junkie does not provide for its users – not that they should. That said, a Grid View is something I felt the UA website required so I went about rolling my own simple Grid View in JavaScript. The UA Shop web page is a dedicated WordPress page that was added to the main navigation. In that page is the following code snippet. Highlighted in yellow is the JavaScript implementation file:

<!--start_raw-->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/ua-shop.css" type="text/css" />
<script type='text/javascript' src='/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/ua-shop.js'></script>
<p> <!--orphaned P tag fix-->
<a id="ua-All" class="ua-shop-lnk" href="#All">All</a> |
<a id="ua-Unisex" class="ua-shop-lnk"  href="#Unisex">Unisex</a> |
<a id="ua-Men" class="ua-shop-lnk"  href="#Men">Men</a> |
<a id="ua-Women" class="ua-shop-lnk"  href="#Women">Women</a> |
<a id="ua-Kids" class="ua-shop-lnk"  href="#Kids">Kids</a> |
<a id="ua-Tees" class="ua-shop-lnk"  href="#Tees">Tees</a> |
<a id="ua-Hoodies" class="ua-shop-lnk"  href="#Hoodies">Hoodies</a> |
<a id="ua-Posters" class="ua-shop-lnk"  href="#Posters">Posters</a>
<!--end_raw-->
<div id="products"></div>

The following code snippet is the content of the ua-shop.js file. This code dynamically generates the Grid View:

jQuery(document).ready(function() {

	if (!window.console) console = {};
	console.log = console.log || function(){};
	console.warn = console.warn || function(){};
	console.error = console.error || function(){};

	var products = [
		{ price:'$18.00', cls:'product', value:'Product', classification:'|All|Women|', href:'/shop/raining-hearts-womans-t-shirt/', img:'/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/images/rh-150x150.jpg', title:'Raining Hearts - Women' },
		{ price:'$15.00', cls:'product', value:'Product', classification:'|All|Kids|', href:'/shop/lorem-ipsum-dolor-kids-t-shirt-size-8/', img:'/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/images/li-150x150.jpg', title:'Lorem Ipsum Dolor - Kids' },
		{ price:'$15.00', cls:'product', value:'Product', classification:'|All|Kids|', href:'/shop/einstein-wearing-3-d-glasses-kids-t-shirt-size-8/', img:'/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/images/einstein-150x150.jpg', title:'Einstein Wearing 3D Glasses - Kids'  },
		{ price:'$15.00', cls:'product', value:'Product', classification:'|All|Kids|', href:'/shop/distressed-star-kids-t-shirt-size-8/', img:'/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/images/ds-150x150.jpg', title:'Distressed Star - Kids'  }
	];

	var show = function(key) {
		var html = [];
		key = key || '|All|';
		for (var n=0; n<products.length; n++) {
			var obj = products[n];
			if (obj.classification.indexOf(key) >= 0) {
				html.push('<a class="' + obj.cls + '" href="' + obj.href + '"><span class="product-price">' + obj.price + '</span><img src="' + obj.img + '" alt="' + obj.title + '" title="' + obj.title + '" /></a>');
			}
		}

		jQuery('.ua-shop-lnk').removeClass('shop-strong');
		jQuery('#ua-' + key.replace(/\|/g, '')).addClass('shop-strong');
		jQuery('#products').html(html.join('') || 'No products available under this heading yet.');	

		jQuery('.product').mouseover(function(e) {
			jQuery(this).find('span').css('display', 'inline');
		});
		jQuery('.product').mouseout(function(e) {
			jQuery(this).find('span').css('display', 'none');
		});
	};

	jQuery('.ua-shop-lnk').click(function(e) {
		var key = '|' + this.id.replace('ua-', '') + '|';
		show(key);
		return false;
	});

	show();
});

One of the nice things about a JavaScript solution for a Grid View is that it’s fast. Most other Grid Views rely on making a request from the server and database before the browser renders the Grid View. The JavaScript version doesn’t need to make any requests to filter the products in the Grid View. All of the filtering is done in the client browser.

Custom View Cart Button

Another thing worth mentioning is the custom View Cart button in the upper right corner of this site. This button was added to the main WordPress template and is accessible from every page. This accessible View Cart button is the finishing touch to the online shopping cart experience.

Summary

I’m quite pleased with the E-Junkie shopping cart solution thus far. Their solution is flexible and easy to use. All the extra code bits I created were simply an attempt to make it easier to work with E-Junkie code snippets specific to this site over time. Of course, there are likely other ways to accomplish what I did. Any suggestions and feedback are greatly appreciated.

We Are All Workers: Levi’s Workshops – Printmaking

CJ — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Here is another well-done printmaking video clip. This one is made by… Levi’s? You know, the company that makes jeans, of course. Levi’s also has a Workshops website with a section of it dedicated to printmaking called the Print Shop. Interesting…

Lorem Ipsum Dolor – Kids T-Shirt – Size 8

CJ — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Impose your inner geek upon a child by getting them this distressed Lorem Ipsum Dolor t-shirt. This design was printed on 100% organic cotton, American Apparel, youth size 8 t-shirts, with water-based inks. The shirts were custom pigment-dyed and pre-shrunk prior to printing. Note that the tag says size 8 but the shirts run slightly smaller than most kids size 8 garments.

Read about the history of this t-shirt here: First Printed Product

Einstein Wearing 3D Glasses – Kids T-Shirt – Size 8

CJ — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Einstein never looked this cool. This design was printed on 100% organic cotton, American Apparel, youth size 8 t-shirts, with water-based inks. The shirts were custom pigment-dyed and pre-shrunk prior to printing. Note that the tag says size 8 but the shirts run slightly smaller than most kids size 8 garments.

Read about the history of this t-shirt here: First Printed Product

Raining Hearts – Womans T-Shirt

CJ — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

This minimalist design garnered a lot of positive attention when it was entered into shirt.woot’s derby back in February 2010. In this design you see a boy dumping a bucket of hearts upon a girl below. Is the girl oblivious? Does she care that this boy is pouring his affections out for her? What do you think?

Printed on a white 2102 American Apparel t-shirt
5-color, water-based, screenprint
More information about this print can be found here

Distressed Star – Kids T-Shirt – Size 8

CJ — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Do you know a child that can rock the Distressed Star print? This design was printed on 100% organic cotton, American Apparel, youth size 8 t-shirts, with water-based inks. The shirts were custom pigment-dyed and pre-shrunk prior to printing. Note that the tag says size 8 but the shirts run slightly smaller than most kids size 8 garments.

Read about the history of this t-shirt here: First Printed Product

Garment Dyeing T-Shirts

CJ — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:00:00 GMT

It’s been some time since my last post. The hiatus is mostly due to enjoying the summer. Although I’ve not been posting lately, that doesn’t mean I’ve been totally idle with Unknown Artifact (UA) endeavors. One of the tasks I’ve been playing around with is garment dyeing my own t-shirts.

Garment dyeing t-shirts is interesting and fun to do but I have yet to determine whether it’s worth the time and investment. The driving interest behind dyeing my own t-shirts is to create custom vintage or muted colors. Besides the printed artwork, the color of the t-shirt is one differentiating factor among the sea of other t-shirts. Most of us designers/printers buy from the same garment wholesale companies so to me, it’s worth considering the effort of custom garment dyeing to to be a little different.

Another benefit to garment dyeing t-shirts is the ability to standardize wholesale purchases on white t-shirts. White garments are usually cheaper than their color counterparts which helps offset the cost of garment dyeing. In addition, unlike popular colors, garment wholesale companies don’t usually run out of white t-shirts. There is little chance of altering a print project due to your t-shirt color of choice being on back-order.

I’ve been using the fiber reactive dyes, Procion MX, for my initial tests. You can find Procion MX dyes in most retail art supply or fabric stores. The process is fairly easy for small quantities and the colors don’t bleed in the wash once the process is complete.

Raining Hearts by Bonnie Z

CJ — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:00:00 GMT

When I dropped an email to Bonnie asking if she would consider having me print her Raining Hearts design, my screen print shop wasn’t even fully assembled and this website didn’t exist. I hadn’t pulled my first print yet. So, it’s a small miracle that Bonnie trusted me with her design. Sometimes all you have to do is ask. Thank you, Bonnie!

This design is a 5 color, water-based, screen print on white 2102 American Apparel t-shirts.

About the Design

This minimalist design garnered a lot of positive attention when it was entered into shirt.woot’s derby back in February, 2010. In this design you see a boy dumping a bucket of hearts upon a girl below. Is the girl oblivious? Does she care that this boy is pouring his affections out for her? What do you think?

Printing the Design

Bonnie’s design was a great piece for me to learn more about water-based screen printing. It’s a sketch-like design with several colors. Unlike my first prints, the Raining Hearts design allowed me the opportunity to get a feel for how long it took before the inks started to dry into the screens. When you are one person printing five colors along with one or two flashes, it can be a little bit of time before you complete a cycle. In this case, hitting the color with multiple passes using some extra muscle remedied the problem. What I also learned is that the water-based inks can congeal during long runs. This is especially noticeable if the screen is running out of ink. Having plenty of fresh ink to add made this a non-issue.

In the end, the print came out incredibly sharp and soft to the touch. Bonnie’s reaction to receiving her shirts in the mail and seeing them for the first time was a great moment - Thanks again, Bonnie.

Drop me an email if you are interested in one of these shirts. An online shopping cart will be here someday.

A Pretty Rough Guide To Screen Printing – Video

CJ — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Get a quick overview on how to screen print posters in this video by Andrew Bell, from Pretty Rough. This simple video is not your average nettut. Rather, this video cleverly highlights the primary steps in a screen printed poster’s life-cycle. I especially appreciate some of the video details such as the blur to focus fading, the camera time spent on deliberate hands, and the choice in music. Of course, the subject matter is the best: screen printing. Well done.

David Arquette Screen Printing WB Discharge Ink

CJ — Mon, 24 May 2010 07:00:00 GMT

I was up late one night watching Last Call with Carson Daly and caught the following segment featuring David Arquette and his clothing line, Propr. In this clip, David Arquette is hand printing t-shirts using water-based discharge ink. What’s most compelling to me about this interview is David’s sincere enthusiasm for screen printing. He’s even got a single press at home. I guess I can relate… very cool.

First Printed Product

CJ — Mon, 17 May 2010 07:00:00 GMT

It’s official. The first Unknown Artifact (UA) shirts are out in the world. They were part of a silent auction at the Experimental Education Unit here in Seattle, Washington. UA donated 3 custom printed/dyed youth shirts; one each of the pictured designs: Lorem Ipsum Dolor, Einstein in 3-D Glasses, and Distressed Star.

Shirt Details

All designs were printed on 100% organic cotton, American Apparel, youth size 8 t-shirts, with water-based inks. The shirts were custom pigment dyed and pre-shrunk prior to printing.

Milestones

Completing these shirts is a significant milestone not only because it’s the first UA product but because it forced me to go through the whole process, from start to finish, in a short amount of time. I had only two weeks to design and print these shirts (in the evenings, after my day job). Screen printing boot camp! Up until this event, I’ve only done test prints so this was my first commitment to producing a product.

I won’t sugar coat it, the process was challenging. There were a lot of proverbial hurdles and I was learning the process along the way. One major hurdle was generating the 3 designs in a hurry. If you’ve read my State of the Union post, you know that my design skills are a work-in-progress. That said, I know these three designs won’t win any awards but I’m quite happy with them (for the moment) considering the pressure I was under. People reacted positively to them (to my face anyway) so I think I got lucky with the artwork. Another major hurdle was fatigue. If I wasn’t on the computer fretting about the artwork, I was in the garage mixing ink or setting up screens. Since it’s not second nature yet, my mind was working hard to think ahead and anticipate the next step. Any major mistake would have prevented me from delivering the goods on time. I was exhausted by the time the auction rolled around but I’m so glad I put in the effort. I learned a ton.

An online shopping cart is on the TODO list so if you would like to buy one of these shirts for your kiddo, just drop me a note.

UA State of the Union - April 2010

CJ — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 07:00:00 GMT

The State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States. This post is akin to the State of the Union, but obviously with much less fanfare. I’m going to report on the current state of Unknown Artifact (UA) and outline some agendas and priorities.

The State of Unknown Artifact (UA)

As of this post, UA is a brand spanking new small company. Though the company is in its infancy, the initial idea of setting up a water-based silk screen shop in my garage is not very new. Back in 2003, when we put a bid on the unfinished house that we live in today, we requested that plenty of electrical power and access to plumbing be added to the garage. Five years after that (about a year before this post) I started to slowly acquire the various silk screen shop components. So, after several years of thought and about a year of equipment acquisitions, the UA shop is now ready to roll.

Agendas & Priorities

One of the goals of this endeavor is to become a proficient and hopefully, accomplished screen printer. Although I’ve pulled a squeegee before, many years ago, I’m not entirely familiar with water-based printing. Not only that, I need to get into the groove of printing again and somehow make it second nature.

Another goal is to improve my designing abilities. I have no problem admitting that my designing skills are sub par. In fact, I would say that my skills suck at this time. Though that being the case, becoming a decent artist is at the heart of this whole endeavor. There’s something distinct about producing a product that is very satisfying. It’s a form of your expression that you hope others will enjoy. For instance, as a short-term goal, it would be incredibly satisfying to see a random person, upon my travels, rocking one of my shirts.

In addition to becoming a proficient printer and designer, another goal is to successfully fulfill the business end of UA. Everything from marketing, shopping cart, taxes, and customer service need to be accommodated. Since most of the business of UA will be virtual, this little website is a critical piece of the puzzle. Much like printing and designing, I’m learning how to build and maintain a WordPress based website on the fly. As many website owners already know, the website is a constant work-in-progress.

Of course, there are many other related goals but those are the primary ones.

Closing Statement

That is UA’s State of the Union at this time. If you have not done so, please feel free to subscribe to this blog and follow along with my progress. I intend to write about all aspects of this endeavor, including challenges and successes, with the hope of obtaining feedback, learning, and sharing ideas with others.

Hello World!

CJ — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Ah, yes. The obligatory ‘hello world’ blog post. Today, this website goes live and is just the beginning. Fingers crossed anyway. Check out the newly added about page. Regards.