Snakefeet

The idea of a small screen printing shop making a line of shirts (on spec) and trying to market and sell them is a fraught one. It can be done but it must be done carefully to not end up as a ship full of shirts that won't sell.

One possible solution to that is DTF screen printing and then great transferring the image to a shirt when one is ordered.

The graphic is screen printed, so the colors are more vibrant and longer lasting than DTG printed shirts. But the graphic is initially printed into a sheet of transfer paper. A heat press is later used to transfer the graphic permanently from the paper to the shirt.

The only way I think I can make this work would be to print the sheets myself. I tried buying them from a print company but they turned out to be garbage. If I can print a wide variety of graphics in sufficient numbers, and then stock a good range of blanks, then I can offer a wide range of shirts on a fast turnaround time.

According to a general answer to a broad web search:

“Yes, screen-printed transfer sheets can be produced in thin, single layers to provide a soft, high-quality “hand” (the feel of the print) on the final garment. While screen printing is often associated with a thicker, more opaque plastisol feel, specific techniques can be utilized to make the transfers feel almost like the fabric itself.”

“Here is how thin, soft-hand screen-printed transfers are achieved:

• High Mesh Screens: Printers use higher mesh counts (e.g., 200–230 mesh) to lay down less ink on the transfer paper.
• Hot Peel/Hot Split Formula: Using specialized plastisol inks that are formulated to “split” upon pressing. The transfer is peeled immediately while hot, leaving only a thin layer of ink in the fibers.
• Soft-Hand Bases/Reducers: Mixing soft-hand additives or reducers into the plastisol ink makes it thinner and less rubbery.
• Eliminating Adhesive Powder: Unlike DTF (Direct-to-Film) transfers, true hot-split plastisol screen-printed transfers often omit adhesive powder, allowing the ink to bond directly to the fabric for a lighter feel.

• Open Areas & Distress: The most crucial step is to design with negative space. A design with “cutouts” or a distressed/vintage pattern reduces the total ink coverage, resulting in a softer feel.
• Thin Lines & Outlines: Instead of solid, bold shapes, using thin text or outlines of images allows more of the garment fabric to breathe through.

• Second Press with Textured Sheet: After the initial transfer, pressing again for 5–10 seconds using a textured sheet (like a cotton tea towel) helps drive the ink further into the garment, reducing the “sticker” feel.
• Avoid Over-pressing: Using the lowest recommended temperature and time to activate the adhesive ensures the ink doesn't turn rubbery.

“By following these methods, screen-printed transfers can produce a vintage, “no-feel” result that is highly preferred on lightweight fashion garments.”

I see this as a crucial point. Because they are reproductions of charts these graphics are inherently large areas of solid color. I remember how sweaty my back was under my favorite shirts. As the months wore on and the ink wore away the graphic became softer and more porous. But I don't want to inflict that sweatiness on a customer who buys one of my shirts. That, and that level of forbearance is too much to ask of the public these days.

This will call for some practice and R&D in the shop

NavTees is a pretty basic idea: t-shirts decorated with graphics based on navigation charts. My favorite shirts of all from a period in my 20s were shirts like this. The most cherished one if all those I wore until it was a flimsy, gauzy rag that fell to threads if I touched it roughly.

One of my first commercial ventures involved selling shirts decorated in this fashion with a chart of the Lynnhaven River. It was successful as I had time for and it proved the concept to me.

To made it practical I need to focus intently on it for a while to grow the product line and the marketing.

Gemini, in its digital lizard-brain focused way, insists that I need to focus on a few high-dollar spots. If I make a few shirts that appeal to massive markets, success is assured.

There is some sense in that, I suppose. It sounds boring but it makes sense. J Peterman is a good example to consider. The premise is that Peterman travels to find great garments, then sells them with compelling but brief anecdotes. Each of his trips could be a deeply involved and lengthy saga but we get a snippet. Not even an anecdote but a tiny vignette to give us a taste of travel that clings to the garment the way a good perfume hovers around a woman - not distracting one from the woman but imperceptibly making her more present in the moment.

So how do I sequence and prioritize the next shirts? The possibility of radiating outward from Lynnhaven River is still open. Or doing market research and trying to divine what bodies of water would make the most people want to buy shirts.

I toyed with the idea of making them autobiographical at first (not in order):

• Newport, OR
• Heceta Head
• Depoe Bay
• Tillamook Bay
• Columbia R. entrance Ilwaco/Astoria
• Willamette & Mackenzie Rivers
• Willamette & Columbia Rivers
• Beaufort, SC
• Delaware River in Philly
• C&D Canal
• Wickford & North Kingstown
• East Greenwich
• St. Andrews Bay
• Elliot Bay
• Bremerton
• Charleston Harbor
• Savannah River
• Cooper River by CHASNAVSTA
• Oriental, NC
• Annapolis, MD
• Narragansett Bay
• Lynnhaven River
• Hampton River
• Port Canaveral
• Holy Loch
• Roosevelt Roads
• Halifax, NS
• San Diego Bay

Something else to remember is that the shirt that planted the seed in my mind showed one tiny excerpt from a larger chart: just Bohicket Creek and part of the North Edisto River out of a chart that showed, if I remember, North Edisto River from the ocean to the ICW, and maybe South Edisto, too.

So I should keep the designs, and and the stories, tight.