The Lincoln
Michael Cianfrani
Hand batik’d and ink wash
design run of
01/09/2008 through 01/30/2008
This is the archetypal man himself, presented as you have not seen before. This deep charcoal gray is hand dyed, the white half-tone style dot work is batik’d, and the background in the area of the design has a delicate black ink wash to offset the design further. Each shirt is created one at a time by hand, and any number of design elements will be unique to each shirt. The design area measures 13 X 20 inches, and will remain that size occupying more of the front of the shirt the smaller the shirt size ordered. Design is pictured is an extra large men’s.
[update]: The working design has been expanded to roughly 14.5 inches across.
Those who purchased the ‘i still function, i still glow’ design had an opportunity to purchase an ‘upgrade’ to the design. I finalized my intention with this idea right when I was coding the checkout buttons for the shirt. This experiment resulted in what I hope future scientists, upon unearthing, will consider in whatever moon language they speak, to be ‘awesome.’
How it worked: a person could add a charge to their cart for the upgraded design version, which would include additional unspecified elements that related to the original design.
It seemed simple, but in fact had a certain complexity that I could already taste. My thoughts regarding this taste was that I could certainly handle another serving. I thought that it would be even more interesting for everyone involved if this wild-card idea was brought to bear. The buyer could get a surprise, and I could make items that were of an even more limited edition. In fact, my intention was to make them literally ‘single edition’ items. Each would be different, each would be an opportunity to go a little nuts. I wanted people to have an option to give me a chance that I would love to do with artists that I follow and adore. A chance to do whatever they want.
Within a little reason, of course. My plan was to have the upgrage add to the design already presented, so the benefactor would be able to predict withing a certain ‘hunch’ of a range, how it might go. The chances of delivering a fushia item in this case was severely limited, and I’m sure the two brave souls who decided on the upgrade slept better because of it.
To make matters more interesting, the button code I mentioned earlier was slightly off when I published it to the site, so that the charges where a little too high. The first purchaser of the upgrade actually was double charged for it. I offered to send back the money or create a ‘double upgrade’ design, and he, like a Vegas pro, said let it ride. And so, I did.
The single upgrade shirt received additional stitching of glow thread around the skull, and accent stitching on the sleeves. I had wanted to extend the stitching on the front out at least twice as far, but the fabric of the shirt began to bunch a bit.
The double upgrade, well, yeah, nuts. The pictures only show limited detail of the double, but the two flanking skulls on the front are glow-ink covered white jersey fabric with a separate skull cut out of black shirt on top These layers have then been sandwiched and stitched together to the front of the shirt with the glow thread. And since that wasn’t sufficient, I did that all on a white ringer shirt. And since that wasn’t sufficient, I went and added a little glow stitch of the skull shape at the nape of the neck.
Pictured is an experiment of mine, using textile paint as a wash. Just wanted to see what it would do. The results looked better wet than when it dried, but these things are to be expected, like rabbits eating in the vegetable garden.
Working over the holidays never seems lend me any sort of focus. It is terribly difficult ignoring the elephant in the room, much less the chocolate covered pretzels. I have been working, but not completing. The pictured shirts, still in their white form, are not actually going to be white. Shocking. The archaic plumbing of my prototype production methods is on the verge of serious bursting. No, not regular bursting, serious bursting.
There are several that I do not even have pictures of as of writing this. Next year is going to be pretty neat.
And then some more time. I did have a phone conversation with about the Tiny Run concept, where it’s been, where I’d like it to go. One of her points to me in our forty-five minute conversation that I thoroughly enjoyed was that she just wrote a blog post the day before that dealt with many of the things we were talking about. Another point was that initially, passion can drive everything, but that eventually, that passion will not be able to withstand the rigor of sustaining the business. There is a breaking point.
And so, there needs to be a plan.
I’ve been formulating a plan. And the holidays too, they do distract. But I’ve been thinking that Tiny Run Year One is coming to a close, and that the next year, for Year Two…I have to say, I have big things I’m thinking of. The longer I take to brew them the larger the ideas become. But behind the ideas, in the quiet dark, a more complete infrastructure is forming. Something that can sustain itself. I have to say I’m very excited for the things to come even though I still have some figuring to do, numbers to crunch, and prototypes to make.
Once I started paying wholesale prices for shirts, I couldn’t comprehend going back to buying retail. Oddly, I’ve never been a big clothes shopper in general.
I do go to American Apparel retail stores, but only to check color. But recently, as certain garments of mine have been rendered threadbare through cumulative time of dedicated service to covering my ape-like body from prying eyes, I went shopping.
I went to a mid-range chain where initially I found little to surprise me. Why anyone would screen print argyle onto a shirt I simply do not understand. If you’re going to screen print, and you can do whatever you want with three or four colors, I’d go ahead and do something a little different. But you might have guessed that.
After finding a few inconsequential fashion choices that aren’t available via my wholesale accounts, I wandered through the ‘other side’ of the store, which contained all the various apparel not related to my age or gender.
The kids section blew me away.
I know they are spending pennies on labor in a foreign country because for these wearables, they’d have to. I saw layers of screen printing, appliqué, and embroidery all over the place and even screen printed appliqué that then was embroidered to the shirt. One of them pictured here again with the argyle, what up, but still. I was floored.
There were racks and racks of crazy stuff and combinations that I’ve never seen anywhere. There was nothing like this in the adult sections of this same store. Have I missed websites or stores that have this sort of gear for adults? Is there some main stream aversion to complicated, layered decoration on adult shirts?
I changed the theme of the site roughly a month ago? I go and look at this and now I feel all honky and unprofessional.
So many things to do. New design should be ready for this weekend, I’m trying to get the next three or four done at the same time, and we know how this goes. I’m still here though, loving this idea, however much I think it could look better…
you will receive notices for every new shirt design that debuts, and occasional previews and special offers, so as to not miss out on any possible shirt goodness.
