blog 6

3-5-2020

Gala baskets

This week Andrew and I took more photos for the pamphlet that came out way better than what we had, so that should be all we need to finish it. Around the middle of the week, Anneli, Daniel, Andrew, Shea and I went to target to try and find some things we need for baskets we're going to auction off. We're going to get some things that we can alter in DTech (like engraving and vinyl stickers) that we can then put into themed baskets and auction off. We didn't find what we needed so we skipped that for now and we'll get the supplies elsewhere. We then went to woodcraft to look for food safe resin so we can make cutting boards and such. We found some good resin and got the 2 gallon pack, and then we picked up a few dyes and pigments for the resin. Shea and Andrew also found some nice cuts of live edge wood that they wanted so they got those to make cutting boards out of, which they'll start next week.

BLog 5

2-27-2020

Progress

This week we made more progress on some of our jobs. Right now we have several T-Shirt jobs that we need to get done so we did the emulsion for the golf shirts and helped another team with their emulsion since they've never done it before. This time we need to do two colors so we had to make two screens plus help with the other teams, making it three. Now that we're getting the hang out emulsion it went by pretty quickly and we were able to do three in the time it used to take to do one. With our other shirt job, we have to adjust some of the line work on the design because it's a little jagged right now and might come out weird in the emulsion. I also worked more on the DTech pamphlet this week, Andrew and I are hoping to get it done next week, we just needed to take more photos with different backgrounds this week.

Blog 4

2-20-2020

Pamphlet

Our team finished the house joust this week. We had to take a picture of Li and Reeves at splash mountain and photoshop it to make it look cooler. We kind of waited a long time to start this project because none of us really knew how to photoshop, but the end result didn't look too bad. We also had to add the names of the people in the photo which was sort of difficult, because they didn't fit nicely on the page, but we eventually figured it out. Later this week I worked on a job for my internship. I have to create a product brochure for DTech that we can mass print and give to hardware stores and investors. It's going a little slow because I don't quite have an idea, but I'm hoping to work on it more this weekend and put it together next week.

Blog 3

2-13-2020

A busy week

This week was pretty eventful, Shea and I set off on learning how to CNC, which isn’t hard, as it turns out. We figure it’s kind of a mix between laser cutting and 3D printing. The first thing I was there to help with was the new DTech logo carved into plywood. It would’ve turned out really nice, but the wood started splitting and splintering off near certain parts. At least now we know what we’re doing and we can try again and have it turn out better. Other than that, We finished a job for a custom T-shirt using heat press vinyl instead of screen printing this time. We didn’t think about the size of the heat press before we cut out the design, so the design was too big to fit in the press in one go. It ended up being fine, all we had to do was put one side of the design in and then just flip the shirt and line the rest of the design up to the part you already heated and heat that side. I also helped show Daniel how to use heat press and he ran into the same problem so I showed him how to line everything up and heat both sides.

Blog 2

2-6-2020

The secret formula

This week ended up pretty well compared to last week. Shea and I finally figured out the secret formula for drying the shirts. The problem ended up being that we made too thick of an ink layer before curing it, so when we put it through the oven it only cured the very top layer and cracked. Instead, we flashed between layers and then put it in the oven after the second layer with heat on high and speed at around 25, which worked perfectly. We ended up also working really efficiently and finished the rest of the shirts, about 110, in 3 hours. Later in the week I also went around and sold more pennants as well as getting some paper work signed off, which made me feel like I accomplished a lot more this week. Next week we'll start to wrap up some projects and distribute the shirts to DTech so we can take an updated photo.

Blog 1

1-30-2020

DTech shirts

This week Shea and I got started with making the DTech shirts for all three dynasties. About a week ago Miller decided on the final updated logo and we recently received the shirt order. We decided on a charcoal gray
T-shirt with a small logo in the top corner and nothing on the back, which allows us to put whatever we wish on the back and the rest of the shirt. We started having problems with cracking again, which is strange because the first few times we used the conveyor belt dryer we had no problems and everything came out fine. Shea and I tried to adjust several different things to help but nothing really fixed the problem. Now we think that maybe we have to flash in between layers again since we're doing two layers with the white ink. We didn't have time to try this week, so we're going to test out that theory next week.

Beefcake, but pink

1-9-2020
This was our first week back after winter break so I thought it was going to be difficult to get back into the flow of things but it turned out to be pretty easy. Shea and I wanted to make some more beefcake merch with different colors so we cleaned off the screen and switched the colors to hot pink and neon purple. We didn't have sweatpants this time so we printed on some extra shirts we found in the shed and they turned out really good so we decided to give some away. We made one for Li and Frazier, as well as two other people and they really liked them. Earlier in the week Shea and I also cut out a bunch of stickers and tried out some new holographic vinyl I bought. They were just meant for us to take pictures of to put on Shopify so it looks nice, but they turned out so well we decided to do a giveaway. We haven't figured out the exact regulations yet but we're going to post it on Instagram this weekend so we can decide winners next week. The stickers turned out really cool and I'm happy with how the holographic vinyl looks, I'm definitely going to be making more stickers out of that. The end of this week was really fun too, all the interns and I got to hang out and we had a lot of fun climbing on roofs and water Shea's shoes to clean some glue off.

a two-toned sticker

12-19-2019
This week we went back to figuring out the alignment on the school pennants. We still really couldn't get it to work so Shea and I figured an alternative would be to print all the white first, take the pennants off, then when we were done put them back on to do all the red at once. This sort of worked, it got difficult trying to put them back and get that part of it aligned, but we managed to pull it off. We ran into another problem with the ink though, because the texture of the felt is rougher than a shirt the ink would bleed in some spots. We adjusted the off contact height of the screen and ran over the design with the squeegee as little times as possible which seemed to fix the problem. We got about ten pennants done this week in total so we can start to reach out to customers and let them know they're almost ready for purchase. Aside from this, Shea and I finished up a custom sticker design for a customer, just in time for the holidays. It was a "Clovis" sticker that presented some challenges due to the unusual request. The sticker was to go in the window of a truck, on the inside, but be readable from the outside. This meant we had to mirror the design  so when it was stuck to the window it could be read from the outside. Not only this, but the design was to be two toned. This meant we had make two stickers, both mirrored, and line up one on top of the other so the green color could be recognized as an outline when seen from the outside, but from the inside it's just a strange shape. This idea actually worked extremely well and we are proud of the outcome, just can't wait to deliver the product to the customer.

Two colors

12-12-2019
This week we got to working on our Soldier Project House Joust in preparation for presenting it next week. Shea, Anneli and I also spent some time trying to set up the registration for the FTHS Pennants we're making. We put registration marks on the emulsion design, but since they didn't come out right we couldn't really use them. Although, you really don't need them, so we just covered them with tape and registered the screens without them. This proved to be difficult, though not due to the lack of registration marks. It was just difficult because no matter what we did we couldn't seem to get the screens to line up. Eventually, we decided to put our efforts into other things and we're leaving the pennants for next week. For the last part of the week, Shea and I were working on setting up our beefcake design for our sweatpants. Although we made two screens, one being used for the highlights on the text, we decided to not use that one. We were using two colors to create a gradient with the text and figured highlights would be too much and make the design too busy. The tests we did turned out really nice and we plan on printing them some time after winter break since they aren't a priority.

New jobs

12-5-2019
This week we collected a lot of new jobs from different customers. I suppose this is due to the holidays coming up soon. This means we're under more of a time constraint with finishing up these jobs. Not only do we have this, but we have to finish up a job for the English department which was given to the whole class as a house joust. Earlier this week Shea and I had some time to mess around so we started drawing each other very poorly on the whiteboard, then went on to draw more people in DTech. It got some good reactions before we erased it. Towards the end of this week we Allison and I started to set up the silk screen press to get ready for printing two colors. This meant we had to add a second slot for a second screen to fit in, which ending up being more trouble then we thought. The springs used to hold the clamp in place are really strong and couldn't be pulled by hand so we tried to maneuver it in such a way where the press could do the work for us. We were still having trouble so we decided to call Miller over to see if he remembered how they got the first clamp on the press. He showed us a method that he thought might work; we had to take one of the bolts that lies over the top of the clamp off of the machine so we could raise the clamp to a height where the springs would easy fit into place. Then we just pressed the clamp down and let the machine do the work of pulling the springs. It worked perfectly and we got it attached, but it started raining so we put everything away for the week.

PEnnant Prep

11-26-2019
This week, only being two days, didn't allow us much time for any projects. Shea and I showed Anneli the emulsion process since she wanted to learn and is now the lead on a silk screen order of school pennants. The process went smoothly, just took longer than normal due to us using two screens instead of one. We did this because the design we're using for the pennants requires two colors, so two separate screens for each color. It was really nice working in the shed now that it's organized and has more room to move around, the only problem was that the light fixture would turn off every ten minutes and we had to keep unplugging it and plugging it back in. Other than that, when we went to wash out the screen we accidentally blew out some of the registration marks, and the other ones came out all blurry. I think maybe we cured it for two long, so it went through the black and half cured that part of the design, since the registration marks are small. It should be fine though, they aren't detrimental to the project, just there to help us line up the colors.

A Week for uptern hours

11-21-2019
This week I focused less on the team and more on my internship. Shea and I finished a massive reorganization of the silk screen shed. We sorted out and shelved all of the inks according to color and brand, shelved chemicals and their refill bottles, organized practice shirts, installed new UV filtered lighting for the emulsion process, sorted all of the tools and equipment, and remounted the press to a more stable table. Towards the end of the week a few interns and I worked on reclaiming about seven screens that had been neglected for awhile. When we did this, about half of them ended up being perfectly fine, but the rest had some sort of thing wrong with them. One of the screens had completely pulled away from the frame in one corner, so we marked it as a test screen. Another had old ink residue that wouldn't come off completely, which shouldn't affect future jobs, it just doesn't look nice. After all this was done, we put them in some new storage that we had gotten earlier in the week so everything in the shed is completely organized now.

Beefcake

11-14-2019​
This week not much happened, Shea and I worked on our beefcake design that we're going to silk screen onto sweatpants. This time, instead of doing emulsion, we decided to use a technique involving vinyl since we're only printing a few things. We cut out the design using the vinyl cutter and just stuck that to the screen. We don't have to do anything else with screen besides tape it up when we go to print; this saved us so much time compared to doing the entire emulsion process. We plan on trying out a two color gradient with the inks this time, which I think will turn out really cool. We're planning on a mix of blue and green glitter inks which should also blend nicely.

​The avid order

11-7-2019
This week ended up being really successful. She and I fixed the wonky legs and the tilt on the flash dryer at the beginning of the week. The problem with the legs was that the holes were drilled off center during manufacturing, so we had to re drill a hole that made the legs more centered. With the tilt, we just adjusted the top so it was level and tightened the bolts to hold it in place. That held for awhile, but I think were going to have to go back and put a wedge in somewhere because it just keeps dropping from the weight of it. The most exciting part of this week was finally getting the technique and all the specifications down just right for the AVID shirts to come out really well. Over the weekend I was researching all the possible reasons things went wrong for us to begin with. First, the flash dryer wasn't at the right height for the plastisol to only reach around 260 degrees, it was way hotter so it over cured. Then, when curing, we did two runs instead of three and on the second run you take the shirt off the platen and lay it across the top before heating; that way there's an air current through the shirt and it heats more evenly, preventing over curing. We also figured out you have to stretch the shirts over the platen a little bit to prevent cracking. Thursday we got around 50 shirts done in one session, and I think we can finish them all Friday because we don't have much more to go, just about another 50.

Tostitos logo

10-24-2019
This week we finalized the order process for two of our customers. Shea and I also spent more time on Wednesday printing more of the AVID shirts, which we currently have a total of 12 done. Earlier this week I also worked on a custom sticker for Shea and I. I found this humorous image on the interwebs of replacing "tortilla chip" with "torntala chip." I found this so extremely hilarious I had to make it into a sticker. So I copied the format of the Tostitos logo but replaced it with Torntala. All of this week I was preparing for an interview with Li and Miller for an internship position. I had my actual interview with them on Thursday, and I feel pretty good about, I think it went well and I got my point across. Now it's just a waiting game to see if they choose me.

Practice and more practice

10-17-2019
This week we mainly focused on getting our order of AVID shirts started. We were waiting so long because we wanted to be ready before starting on the actual shirts so we make the least mistakes possible. A large part of Wednesday was spent practicing on old shirts and figuring out where we needed to set the screen and where we would line up each shirt to make sure the designs turn out even. After everything was set, I thought it would be a good idea for me to do just a few more practice runs before starting the real thing. By the time we started on the actual order, we only had time to do about seven shirts, as the beginning of the process was a little slow. We started speeding up towards the end though which is a good sign that we can be efficient. I'm really happy about how the shirts turned out and I think the customer will be pleased with the quality. Allison also made a neat contraption out of cardboard to help fold shirts quickly. You only have to line up the shirt seams with folds in the cardboard, then bend the cardboard flaps a certain way to neatly fold the shirt. It sped up the process and will come in handy when we start cranking these out. At the end of the day, we were told that a reason our off-contact may have been off is that the build-up of adhesive on the platens was never cleaned off. So part of our clean up that day was scraping off all the adhesive with a razor blade, resulting in quite a large ball of what's essentially glue. It ended up being a lot of work but was worth it after seeing what the platens look like now.

New techniques and custom orders

10-10-2019
This week we redid our screen for the AVID shirts with a different emulsion and used a gentler technique for washing out the design. This time the screen turned out perfect and all the edges are sharper than before. We wanted to practice printing again and to try out the screen before our order of shirts arrived so we taped up the screen to get it prepared. Wednesday we actually got to test it out and we ran into a problem with the off-contact settings for the platens. The base of the screen was far enough off the platen, but dipped down at an angle towards the front. We had to research how to fix it and eventually got it to be even, but that problem caused the design to come out patchy in some areas. Besides the shirts, I personally finished up a custom order for a key chain and got an okay to go ahead and laser cut it, which I planning on doing early next week. Friday Shea and I tried to figure out dye sublimation and got a drawing of a pheasant that came out really well, so we're planning on testing out more designs next week.

Limited time

10-3-2019
This week, being a short week for the school, meant we weren't able to get too much done. Our whole team helped construct and organize our Trello board to better communicate and organize with each other. I also attempted to cure a screen that we would later use for a job to silk screen shirts. However, it didn't turn out as we wanted and some of the small lettering that was involved started to pull away from the screen and we had to scrap it. We plan to redo it next week with different emulsion and switching up our technique a bit. We think maybe it didn’t cure long enough, so we’ll put it in the exposure unit for longer.

Trello setup

9-26-2019
This week was more of a cool down after back to school night, we didn't end up focusing on many projects. We worked on a few things though. Shea and I got the design for the AVID shirts printed out so we're ready for the emulsion process next week. With this design, we decided to print two copies of it and tape the pages together to make the design darker. Then, when we expose the emulsion on the screen, the design should turn out cleaner. The whole team also got the new Trello page set up to better organize our projects. I think this will be much more efficient than our current situation on google sheets and will be much more appealing to look at.

Back to school

9-19-2019
This week has been more eventful, in the beginning of the week I was finalizing the products we would need to sell at back to school on Thursday. This took most of my time, the designs were done but I had to laser cut key chains in different colors of acrylic and had to laser cut different designs in coasters. Along with this, I helped sort out a problem with our quote for the customer ordering 120 shirts. Then, on Thursday, I helped manage our booth at back to school night and got experience speaking with the public and advertising with customers. Looking back, while it was stressful, it was actually pretty fun and helped me build important skills that I'll definitely need later.

back to school prep

9-12-2019
This week wasn't too exciting in the aspect of creating new things, it was more of a week to catch up on plans I've been meaning to get to for awhile. I mostly focused on finalizing products for back to school night coming up in a week. For example, I laser cut some coasters and helped to laser cut a batch of key chains. These were largely just a test batch, both of key chains and coasters, I plan on actually finalizing the rest of the products next week, before back to school night. Other than that I've been occupied with getting the paperwork for a customer on track. They've ordered 120 shirts for a program and I've been helping to get the design proof and quote on track to present to the customer soon. That's something we plan on doing next week as well.