In the Studio

In the Studio - The studio has been pretty quiet over the past 2 weeks as I was preparing and spending time with our god-daughter.

(Product Review - Speedball Fabric Screen Printing Inks)

I believe the last thing I shared with you all was my plans to screen print.  I had purchased some new Speedball fabric screen printing inks to try.  Everything was going great with making my graphics and custom screens, but the new inks just weren't to my liking.  The Speedball ones appeared to be nothing more than thick acrylic craft paint with the fabric additive included. For the price I paid, I could have easily bought several high quality acrylic paints and a large tub of fabric additive to make my own. They weren't like ink at all and were very disappointing.  The only think that I liked about them is that they blended well to make your own colors.  Before doing any more screen printing I'll be looking for new inks.  I want true inks and not acrylic paint.  For the casual crafter who wanted to make an occasional custom t-shirt, this would probably be a nice product.  I wanted to make a more professional looking end product that would last the life of the t-shirt and this product didn't meet that expectation. 

To give you an overview price wise - I purchased the 6 color starter set at Hobby Lobby for $24.99 and a separate medium sized tub of black at an art store for $8.99. So that's roughly $35 with tax for essentially 7 tubs of the equivalent of craft acrylic paint that you could find at Walmart.   You can get large bottles of acrylic paint at Walmart for $1.59 each. So you can do the math there.


Plans for This Week In the Studio :
It's all about toy knitting and organizing this week.  I'm going to be offering toys now at the local shop. The toys will vary in size and type.  This week I'm making some pillow-type toys. Each toy will be unique and multi-colored.  Depending on the toy's personality, it may also be wearing clothes.  As the summer progresses, I'll be adding some more traditional bears.  If you are interested in a custom toy, please send me an email and we'll discuss the particulars.  *Note - All toys are knit from cotton yarn so they are machine washable.  Any fabric additions will also be 100% cotton.

I've added a few new things to the studio and need to find places to put everything so when I need a knitting break, I'll be doing some organizing as well.  I found a lovely blog that focused on fabric organization and would like to include some of her techniques into my studio.  Check out her ideas for your own inspiration.  This link takes you to a post about her reader's stashes with links to her organization tips.

Next up with be my Inspired By post.....

~*Melody