i’m taking the anniversary gift relatively seriously by adhering to the traditional list and making the gifts by hand (so far). i’m not really good at diy so this is a pretty remarkable endeavor. and depending on the day, i have difficulty starting or finishing a project. dicey.

last year, i gave m paper:

this year, i ran a bit late but i’m finishing today after a few days of significant effort. representing cotton for year number 2, is a t-shirt silkscreened with m+j logos. there’s a long story about fabric silkscreening. when i was growing up and of a single digit age, let’s say 8, my mom got out her 1970s silkscreening supplies and made t-shirts and sweatshirts on a (very) small scale. this process is incredibly tedious and very messy. there are lots of flammable chemicals that say “not for general public use” involved. awesome. i was 8. even awesomer. i was obsessed with garfield so i outlined garfield illustrations and then printed them on paper. i might’ve made a t-shirt, but i can’t remember. the small screen still had the emulsion adhered to it and using lacquer thinner, i removed it earlier this week. but i digress…

back in october 2007, m and i had a brilliant idea that we would silkscreen again. mom sent me her supplies and in january 2008, we ordered fresh paint, emulsion film, and flammable chemicals from dick blick (and also a brown fruit of the loom pocket t-shirt – i found it in the box of supplies). and then they just sat in the closet and then the garage until now. they sat so long, ulano now makes a water-based adhering film. they probably had too many 8-year-olds complaining about missing fingers and hair loss. i digress again…

all of the supplies are in perfect condition even if my memory of how it all works is a little rusty. the old garfield emulsion came off just fine so i let it dry. in the meantime, i prepped the icons in illustrator to make sure they were the right printed size. i used a different t-shirt with a chest decal as a reference. once printed, i started cutting the emulsion film to fit the screen frame and then started cutting the stencils. the film cut just like i remembered. i was a little clumsy at first as i acclimated to the knife but after a few “dots,” i fell into a groove. the 2 little logos took me less than 2 hours, but it seemed like more. cutting the stencil requires careful motor control and concentration. i have no idea how i accomplished not just 1 but 2 of these when i was 8. i’m a nerd with superhuman concentration and tenacity. that’s how i accomplished it.

i adhered the logo yesterday starting with the one that is symmetrical because i couldn’t remember if the image had to be reversed when adhered to the screen. of course, i realized this after i completed the m+j which absolutely has to be cut appropriately because you definitely can’t read that one backwards. fyi, i didn’t need to cut it backwards. but i didn’t use enough adhesive solution so the film didn’t adhere as well as it should have, but i have my ways of making half-assed things work magnificently. i let it dry all afternoon and then used an x-acto knife to assist me in keeping the best adhered parts in place. all i need is enough room on each side to keep the paint from spreading too far and seeping through the non-film areas.

excited to try it out, i printed the front just before going to bed.

this morning, i ironed the dry paint per instructions (3-5 minutes on med-high with towel interface) and adhered the m+j film to a separate screen (the one with 2 garfields on it). i pendulum swung to the other end and literally poured the adhering solution onto the screen and in doing so, seemingly disintegrated the emulsion film a little bit. it all turned out ok, maybe even a bit better than ok as the film adhered better and faster, but i had to place the removed plastic backing around the logo just in case i created too much weakness in the film and white seeped through. speaking of making half-assed things work, the squeegee has lost its integrity, as plastic is wont to do over years of temperature extremes, so i simply placed saran wrap over the squeegee which worked well and provided easy clean-up.

final product backside pre-ironing:

some of the dots didn’t print as thickly as i would’ve liked. i blame my not degreasing the screen before printing (i *really* wanted to get to the printing so i cut corners) and my not pressing hard enough with the white (i had a soft towel underneath the shirt to prevent the paint staining the front and the tiny dots are tiny. tiny things need more love. and a harder, smoother surface would’ve helped.). but sometimes mistakes turn out ok. the m+j has a faded, vintage printed look to it. not what i intended but not necessarily a bad thing either. now, let’s see how long it lasts in the washing machine.

next year is leather. let’s hope i don’t have to slaughter a cow.

happy anniversary, m. even if i wanted to do this more than you wanted me to do this. ;)